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“Sam, half carrying, half dragging Fred, . . . staggered 
OUT ii:to the open air.” — Page 275. 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS 


AN ENERY-DAY STORY 


BV 

ANNA CHAPIN RAY 



m 15 1890 ' 


/ 


/ 


NEW YORK 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 

46 East Fourteenth Street (Union Square) 


By 




Copyright, 1890, 

T. Y. Crowell & Co. 




TO 

ISt. £)• 

THE ORIGINAL OF MY ROB, 

IN MEMORY OF JIANY PLEASANT HOURS WE HAVE 
SPENT TOGETHER, 

THIS LITTLE STORY IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED. 





3 



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4 









PREFACE. 


“ ‘ An every-day story ; ’ I should think it 
was I ” is the exclamation of that much-dreaded 
being, the critic, as he hastily turns over these 
simple pages. But that is just what it is 
meant to be. Most of our boys live every-day 
lives, with few exciting adventures or narrow 
escapes. And although they greedily absorb 
the highly spiced tales of youthful pirates and 
ruffians that are only too common in these 
days, by reading them they realize the more 
keenly the humdrum nature -of their own 
surroundings, and too often are led to wish for 
the excitement of the other life. But, after all, 
it is the simple round of school and games, the 
frolics and scrapes, which seem so unimportant 
to their elders, that go to make up the sum of 
a boy’s happiness or misery ; and if this be so 
outside of books, why is it not equally true 
within their covers ? 


6 


PREFACE. 


Every New England town can show a Teddy, 
a Phil, and a Fred, more or less thinly dis- 
guised, while Rob and Fuzz, without any 
disguise at all, are even now important mem- 
bers of one small community. 

With this warning as to the commonplace 
nature of our boys and of their doings, and this 
slight explanation of its cause, the writer steps 
aside, and leaves the Half Dozen Boys to tell 
their own story. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Introduces Some New Friends ... 9 

II. Fred 26 

III. The Beginning of the Fight .... 41 

IV. The Other Boys 58 

Y. Walks and Talks 78 

VI. Fred’s New Home 98 

VII. “And when the fight is fierce” . . 114 

VIII. King Winter 132 

IX. The I. I.’s 161 

X. Bob and Fred Entertain Callers . . 181 

XI. The Disadvantages of Science . . . 201 

XII. Their Summer Outing 218 

XIII. The Boys Meet an Old Friend . . . 234 

XIV. Phil’s Fight 249 

XV. “Greater love hath no man” . . . 266 

XVI. A Literary Evening 281 

XVII. Bob Assists at an Important Inter- 
view 296 

XVIII. “The Victor’s Crown of Gold” . . . 308 






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HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCES SOME NEW FRIENDS. 

“ ‘ That among all the changes and chances 
of this mortal life,’ ” intoned the musical voice 
of the rector, “ ‘ they may ever be defended by 
Thy most gracious and ready help, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord.’ ” 

“ Amen,” responded the kneeling choir. 

There was a moment of perfect quiet, as all 
bowed in silent prayer, and then the organist 
softly began to play the first lines of Barnby’s 
All Saints’ Hymn, “For all the Saints,” and 
the boys rose for their recessional. Their 
bright, happy faces smiled down for a moment 
on the waiting congregation, and then their 
voices rose in the inspiring old hymn. 


10 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


As the white-robed figures came down the 
steps from the pretty chancel, singing, — 

“ Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, 
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, 

And win with them the victor’s crown of gold. 

Alleluia, Alleluia ! ” 

more than one person in the congregation was 
touched by the solemn prayer, almost thought- 
lessly offered. The eyes of one of their hearers 
grew misty as she watched the boyish faces, 
and tried to fancy the battles in store for the 
young soldiers. 

As the leaders passed her, they gave her a 
bright smile of recognition, while high and 
clear rang their voices, — 

“ But lo ! there breaks a yet more glorious day ; 

The King of Glory passes on His way.” 

And the line went on out into the choir 
room, from which came the final Amen. 

The people moved down the aisle, laughing 
and chatting, but the young woman of whom 
we spoke stood a moment, waiting until she 
was joined by one of the choir leaders, a bright- 
faced lad of thirteen. He came up to her, hold- 


INTRODUCES SOME NEW FRIENDS. 11 


ing, for convenience, his hat in his teeth, while 
he pulled on his overcoat. His cheeks were 
flushed and his dark eyes shone with the excite- 
ment of the music, but his face was unusually 
sober. 

“Well, Rob?” 

“ Oh, cousin Bess, have you heard about 
Fred?” 

“ What is it, my dear? I hope all is going 
well with him. But wait a moment; I must 
speak to Mrs. Read. Then I’ll come and hear 
all about it.” 

Rob fidgeted about the door of the cosy 
little church until his cousin joined him. To 
go home from evening service without her, 
would have been to deprive Rob of one of his 
weekly pleasures. Cousin Bess was his confi- 
dante, adviser, and oracle ; and to-night, seeing 
the boy was really anxious to talk with lier, 
she hurried her interview with the garrulous 
mother of eleven children, and, leaving half 
told the tale of Tommy’s mumps and Sallie’s 
teeth, she turned to the door, and, with Rob at 
her side, stepped out into the cold November 
starlight. The boy shivered a little. 


12 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“Cold, Rob? You'd better turn up your 
collar, after being in the warm church, and in 
your heavy robes, too.” 

“ I’m not cold,” he said hoarsely. 

“ What is it, dear ? Is anything the matter ? ” 
“ It’s Fred. He’s come home from Boston, 
and he’s lots worse. The doctor says he can’t 
ever see again as long as he lives.” And Rob 
tried to swallow a great lump in his tliroat, as 
he told of his friend’s trouble. 

“ Why, Rob, what do you mean ? When 
did he come home ? Who told you ? ” 

“ Phil told me just now. He came home 
late last night, and Phil met his father to-day. 
The trouble’s all gone into his opposite nerve, 
Phil said, and they say he’ll be blind forever. 
Isn’t it awful, cousin Bess ? ” 

“ Indeed it is, my boy,” said Bess, too much 
shocked by Rob’s tidings even to smile over 
his “ opposite nerve.” “ But I don’t see what 
this can have • to do with his eyes. I do hope 
there is some mistake.” 

“I’m afraid there isn’t,” said Rob, shaking 
his head doubtfully. ‘^You see, Phil saw Mr. 
Allen just this noon,” 


INTRODUCES SOME NEW FRIENDS. 13 


I know ; but his eyes have never troubled 
him, have they ? ” 

“ Not much. A year ago, I guess ’twas, he 
stayed out of school about a week, ’cause it 
hurt him to read. But perhaps it isn’t so bad 
as they think.” 

“Poor Fred!” said Bess, drawing her little 
cousin closer to her side, as she thought of the 
suffering of this other boy. “ If this is true, he 
has a sad, sad life before him. Y ou boys, Rob, 
must do all you can to help him, when he gets 
strong enough to see you again. You can do 
so much for him if you only try. I know my 
boy will, won’t he ? ” 

“ Wh}^, yes. But how can we, cousin Bess ? ” 

“ In ever so many little ways. Go to see 
him, read to him, talk to him, only not about 
things he can’t do ; get him to go out with you, 
- — anything to keep him from feeling he is left 
out in the cold, and you boys get on just as 
well without him.” 

They walked on in silence for a moment, and 
then Bess asked, — 

“ Rob, do you remember the third verse of 
your recessional hymn ? ” 


14 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ I don’t know. What was it ? ” 

“ ‘ Oh, may Thy soldiers,’ ” quoted Bess, and 
Rob took up the line, half under his breath. 
When he had finished it, — 

“ Well, what about it ? ” he asked. 

“ I was thinking to-night, as you came out 
singing it, that I wondered what fighting you 
boys would have to do. Fred has come to his, 
but the ‘ victor’s crown of gold ’ will be very 
hard for him to win, I am afraid.” 

“ Why, cousin Bess ? ” 

“ Rob, my boy, suppose all at once you had 
to just drop right out of all your boy fun 
and games, couldn’t read or study, or even 
go to walk alone ; do you think it would 
be real easy to always be bright and cheer- 
ful, never complain or be cross? It is just 
by bearing this trouble like a man and a 
hero tliat the ‘ victor’s crown ’ will come to 
Fred. It will not be a very happy life to 
live. But we will hope Phil made some 
mistake. Almost anything would be better 
than for him to be blind all his life ; and I 
can’t see what should bring it on. Did Phil 
say how he is now ? ’* 


INTRODUCES SOME NEW FRIENDS. 15 


“Mr. Allen said he was better, and asked 
Phil to go to see him before long.” 

“ I hope he will, and you too, Rob,” said 
Bess, and then added, “How well the music 
went to-night,” hoping to turn her cousin’s 
thoughts into a more cheerful line. But it was 
of no use. 

“ Fred was just coming into the choir when 
he was taken ill. The boys all wanted him, 
for he has a first-rate voice ; but I suppose he 
can’t now. We’d been planning for his coming 
as soon as he got well, and he’s only a little 
shorter than I, so he’d have sat next either Phil 
or me.” 

“ I didn't know he sang,” answered Bess. 
“But here we are at home. Won’t you come 
in, Rob?” 

“No, I must go home and go right to bed. 
I was out late last night, you know. Good- 
night.” And the boy turned to go on as Bess 
called after him, — 

“ Sweet dreams to you, my boy ! And come 
up to-morrow after school. I shall go down to 
see Fred in the afternoon, and I can tell you 
more about him then.” 


16 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


She went into the house, stopping a moment 
in the hall to take off her hat and fur-trimmed 
coat, and then, pushing aside the portiere, she 
entered the bright, pretty room, where her 
mother sat reading. The light from the fii’e, 
blazing on the andirons, flickered over the 
walls, showing a few flne pictures, some dainty 
bits of bric-a-brac, and, scattered around and 
among all, many books. But the prettiest 
thing in the room was the white-haired woman 
who sat by the table in a low chair. Her gentle 
expression and the loving, kindly look in her 
eyes plainly spoke the word mother ; and a rea) 
mother she was, not only to her own flock, now 
all married and gone except this one daughter, 
but as well to all the young men and maidens, 
boys and girls, that ever came into her way. 
Years of delicate health had kept her much at 
home, but her parlor was the favorite resort of 
love-lorn maidens, ambitious youths, and small 
urchins whose broken kite-tails needed prompt 
attention. Not one of them left her without feel- 
ing better for her loving words of advice or conso- 
lation ; her ears were always open, and to each 
she could and did give the one thing most needed. 


INTRODUCES SOME NEW FRIENDS. 17 


Bess pushed a low stool to her side, and sat 
down on it, with her arm in her mother’s lap. 

“ Did you have a pleasant service ? ’’asked the 
older lady, laying down her book, and giving 
her daughter’s hair a caressing pat. 

“ Very. Mr. Washburn did so well to-night, 
better than usual, and the music was ” — 

What it was, Mrs. Carter was never destined 
to know, for at the sound of her daughter’s 
voice, there was a sudden uprising in the willow 
basket by the fire, and out jumped a small gray 
dog, who stretched himself for a moment, and 
then darted straight at his mistress, and climbed 
into her lap with sundry growls and yelps of 
pleasure, wagging, not his tail only, but his 
whole body, clear to his curly head. Standing 
up in her lap, he struck out with his forepaws, 
with an utter disregard for her comfort, and 
only intent on giving her a cordial welcome. 
Bess bore it meekly for a time, but a vigorous 
scratch on her cheek was too much for even her 
patience, and she pushed the dog gently down 
with, a “ That will do. Fuzz ” ; so he trotted 
away, and began to search diligently in all the 
corners of the room. 


18 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Did Rob come up with you, as usual ? ” 
asked Mrs. Carter, when quiet was once more 
restored. 

“ Oh, yes ; I can always depend on him. 
What a dear boy he is! Oh, Fuzz! have you 
found your ball? ” 

For Fuzz had returned on the scene, and 
brought with him the object of his search, a 
small, soft ball that he could easily hold in his 
mouth, or, when he preferred, carry it hooked 
on one of his teeth and hanging out at the side 
of his mouth. Now, rolling it up towards 
Bess, but just out of her reach, he ran back a 
few steps, flattened himself on the carpet, 
wagged his morsel of a tail convulsively, and 
rolled his eyes, first at the ball then at Bess. 
But Bess was in no mood to play, however 
much Fuzz might desire it. She was just 
beginning to tell her mother about Fred, when 
the dog, seeing that the suggestive wag^of his 
tail had no influence, uttered a loud, sharp 
bark. 

“No, no. Fuzz!” said Bess, frowning on the 
excited little creature. “ I’m too tired, and I 
don’t feel like playing.” 


INTRODUCES SOME NEW FRIENDS. 19 


But Fuzz was deaf to her remonstrances, and 
again gave vent to his feelings in the same 
bark, but this time, to add to his powers of 
persuasion, he sat up on his haunches, dropping 
his little forepaws in a supplicating fashion, 
while the stumpy tail' still wagged furiously. 
It was not to be withstood. As usually hap- 
pened in that house. Fuzz conquered; and Bess 
rose, took the ball, and threw it into the 
darkest corner, hoping to gain a moment’s rest 
while the dog hunted up his treasure. Fuzz 
scrambled after it, his sharp little claws catching 
in the carpet as he ran, and in another moment 
he had deposited it at the feet of Bess, and run 
back as before. Experience had taught his 
mistress that when Fuzz wished to play, she 
must obey his will, and keep him running after 
the ball until, tired out, he should be ready to 
go back to his cushioned basket. 

In the intervals of her attentions to Fuzz, 
she told her mother Rob’s account of Fred, and 
then went on to speak of the people she had 
seen, of the sermon, and of other bits of news 
likely to interest her home-abiding mother. A 
few moments’ rest from Fuzz were succeeded 


20 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


by howls from the next room, at first low and 
mournful, but as these proved unavailing they 
gradually turned into the same deafening barks 
that had before carried his point. 

“ Oh, you tiresome puppy ! ” exclaimed Bess, 
in despair. 

Rising, she went to the next room, where, in 
front of a tall bookcase, lay Fuzz, pawing 
wildly at the narrow crack that separated it 
from the fioor, in the hope of rolling out his 
cherished ball. For the twentieth time that 
day Bess resigned herself to the inevitable, and, 
kneeling down on the fioor, with difficulty she 
reached under the bookcase, grasped the ball 
with the tips of her fingers and drew it out, 
while Fuzz, utterly regardless of her nerves 
and her Sunday gown, capered back and forth 
over her, barking madly all the time. 

Fuzz was the ruling member of the Carter 
family. Two years before, Bess, scorning 
Dominie Sampson, the family collie, had been 
anxious to own a toy terrier, and her indulgent 
father had for months been watching for an 
opportunity to gratify his daughter’s wish, 
when one day he came triumphantly home, and 


INTRODUCES SOME NEW FRIENDS. 21 


from his pocket produced a tiny, squirming ball 
of wool. The ball, on being set down on the 
floor, disclosed four wee paws, a dot of a tail, 
two huge ears, a short black nose, and an over- 
whelming tendency to tumble over on it. 

Uttering feeble barks, the absurd little crea- 
ture toddled up to Mrs. Carter’s ball of yarn 
that had fallen from her lap, tried to take it in 
his mouth, tangled himself up in it, broke the 
thread, and then stood meditatively viewing 
the ruin he had worked. For a moment Bess 
and her mother looked at each other in despair, 
and then they began to laugh. From that time 
the puppy’s destiny was an established fact. 

Fuzz, as he was named, rapidly grew from 
the dimensions of a six-weeks-old puppy to 
three times the size of his ancestors. Though 
bought at a high price for his exceptionally 
small size, his long, silky blue hair, and his 
equally blue blood, it must be confessed that 
in all these respects Fuzz was weighed in the 
balance and found wanting. His silky blue 
coat was almost white, and, instead of sweeping 
the ground, as should the hair of a truly aristo- 
cratic Skye terrier, it curled in tight short rings 


22 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


about his head and face, and from there grad- 
ually dwindled away until, at his tail, he was 
only covered with a few sparse locks, through 
which his darker gray skin was plainly visible. 
His baskets, collars, and other belongings were 
rapidly outgrown, and the new ones substituted 
for them soon shared the same fate. And, as 
if to keep pace with his body, his temper and 
will grew at the same time ; for the disposition 
of the dog was an uncertain quantity. Though 
no one ever spent twenty-four hours in the 
house with him without yielding to his fascina- 
tions, strangers and chance callers, one and 
all, detested him. In spite of words and 
blows. Fuzz would run out and bark whenever 
the bell rang. And on some occasions he 
varied the monotony by firmly seizing the new- 
comer by the clothing, greatly to the resent- 
ment of the chosen few whom he favored with 
this attention. Tying him up or shutting him 
.in a room by himself proved of no avail, for, in 
the one case, he invariably bit the string in two ; 
and, in the other, his small paws scratched the 
door with such zeal that varnish and paint van- 
ished before his attacks, while his voice was 


IKTRODUCES SOME NEW FRIENDS. 23 


meanwhile raised in protest against his durance 
vile. Two years fraught with bitter experience 
had taught Mrs. Caiter and Bess that the dog’s 
Will was law, and when once his bark was 
heard the person nearest him hurried to do his 
bidding. Such was Fuzz, who, while we have 
been making his acquaintance, had retired, ball 
and all, into his basket by the fire, where he 
made his bed by pawing and mouthing his rug 
into a lump in one corner, and then settled him- 
self to his well-earned repose, occasionally 
opening one eye and growling sleepily when 
the fire gave an unusually loud crackle. 

For a long time the mother and daughter sat 
in the fitful light, talking of different matters, 
until Bess once more spoke of Fred. 

“ Doesn’t it seem hard and cruel, mother, to 
just shut out that active boy from everything 
he most enjoys? I can’t see any cause for it 
at all ; and yet there can be no mistake.” 

“ Poor little boy ! ” said Mrs. Carter, gently 
pushing her daughter’s hair back from her face. 
“ He has a hard life before him, and no one to 
help him bear it, though he will have every- 
thing that money can give. His father and 


24 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


mother are not the ones to teach him how much 
that is good he still has left ; and he looks to 
me like a boy that will take this very hard.” 

“Who wouldn’t?” said Bess impetuously. 
Then she added, “ What a shame you couldn’t 
have been Fred’s mother! You ought to have 
the bringing-up of all the boys in the country.” 

“ I should probably have been the worst pos- 
sible mother for most of them,” replied Mrs. 
Carter, with a smile. “ But when shall you go 
to see how Fred is ? I think you almost ought 
to go soon, for the boy is so fond of you.” 

“ I told Rob I should go to-morrow ; and oh, 
how I dread it! I don’t know at all how I 
shall find him: whether he is over his old 
trouble, or whether he can see now. I suppose 
I ought to go, though. Poor Rob was quite 
upset by the news.” 

“ He is a sympathetic boy and very fond of 
Fred. I wish he would go to see him when he 
can. He is so gentle he wouldn’t tire him; 
and his quiet fun would be the best possible 
medicine for the poor child.” 

“Rob promised to go when he might. I 
think it took all his heroism, for he is so afraid 


INTRODUCES SOME NEW FRIENDS. 25 


of Mrs. Allen. Why, now I think of it, she 
was at church this morning, for I remember 
noticing her new bonnet. How strange for her 
to leave Fred his first day at home ! ” 

“ I fancy that is her way of doing,” said Mrs. 
Carter as she rose from her chair. “Well, I 
think I shall say good-night to you, my 
daughter.” 

A few moments later Bess followed her up 
the stairs, singing softly as she went, — 

“ * And win with them the victor’s crown of gold. 

Alleluia, Alleluia!’” 


26 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


CHAPTER 11. 

FRED. 

A COLD, dreary November rain was driving 
against the windows, and the heavy, dull drops 
chased one another down the glass. Within 
the room all was bright and warm, with a 
cheerful fire in the grate. The double parlors 
were richly and tastefully furnished, yet they 
were far from attractive, for their very elegance 
made more noticeable their lack of homelike 
cosiness. No pets were ever allowed to invade 
their sanctity, no work-basket of mending ever 
encumbered one of their tables. The very 
books and papers were always carefully returned 
to their accustomed places, though they were 
to be taken up again ten minutes later. The 
glowing coals shone on only one object in any 
way suggestive that the room was ever entered 
except to sweep and dust it. 

In the back parlor a low, broad sofa was 
drawn up before the fire, and on it lay a boy of 


FRED. 


27 


twelve, so quiet that one coming suddenly 
into the room might have fancied him sleeping. 
But with a sudden weary sigh he turned his 
head on the pillow, and pulled the gay afghan 
more closely around his shoulders, dropping, as 
he did so, two or three chocolate creams left 
from some previous feast. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” he said, half aloud, half to 
himself, “mother’ll scold if those get smashed 
on the carpet.” And, slowly getting down on 
the floor, he felt carefully about, evidently 
trying to find the missing candy, which lay, 
plainly visible, near the fender. At last his 
hand touched it, and, putting it on a table that 
stood close to the sofa, loaded with fruit, 
flowers, and candy, he impatiently threw him- 
self down and covered himself again. 

He was a handsome boy, with his light brown 
hair, swarthy skin, and great, dreamy, brown 
eyes ; but his dark skin had no flush of health, 
and the beautiful eyes had a vacant, blank look, 
while the boy face wore a fretful, discontented 
expression, rarely seen in one so young. This 
was Fred Allen, who, ten months before, had 
been a leading spirit among the lads of his age. 


28 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


Bright, frank, and full of fun, though rather 
quick-tempered and imperious, his friends had 
bowed before him, both for his skill in all the 
field games so dear to boyish hearts, and for 
the ease with which he kept at the head of his 
classes in school. Equally devoted to his base- 
ball bat and his books, petted by his teacher, 
and adored by his boy friends, Fred was in 
a fair way to become spoiled and headstrong. 
Just at this time a prize was offered to his class 
for the best set of examinations, and Fred 
worked early and late over his lessons, that the 
prize might be his. It was a proud and happy 
moment for him when, after the teacher had 
announced that the prize was awarded to 
Frederic Hunter Allen, for general excellence 
in his studies, a boy voice called out : “ Three 
cheers for Fred Allen,” and the cheers were 
given with a will. 

But the boy had overstudied, and within a 
week or two signs of intense nervousness 
showed themselves, and soon settled into a 
severe case of chorea, or, as the cook called it, 
“Saint Vitus’s twitches.” For three months 
the boy was very ill, seeing no one but his 


FRED. 


29 


parents and Bess Carter, who spent two or three 
afternoons of each week with him. Then his 
mother declared that her own nerves were getting 
so unstrung, and Fred was not gaining any, why 
not have him go to Boston to a specialist? 

So a private car was ordered, and the boy 
was taken to Boston, where he was left in 
charge of a noted doctor and a professional nurse 
of undeniable reputation and heart of iron, who 
presided over her patients with a clock in one 
hand and a thermometer in the other, with no 
allowance made for personal variations. 

His mother, in the mean time, was free to 
recuperate her nervous system by a round 
of calls, shopping, teas, and theatre-going, 
to which the illness of her only son had 
been a serious hinderance. People talked a 
little, as well they might, but Mrs. Allen spoke 
so regretfully of her own poor health, and 
wiped her eyes so daintily when any one asked 
for Fred, that it was the general opinion that 
she was more to be pitied than her little son. 

As the months passed, and the boy did not 
return, inquiries for him grew fewer, and to 
these few Mrs. Allen responded with indiffer- 


30 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


ence. Mr. Allen went occasionally to see his 
son, but he was a cold, proud man, whose chief 
ambition was that Fred should make a fine 
appearance in society, as a worthy heir to the 
fortune that he would one day leave him. 

But the reports of the specialist were not 
encouraging. The chorea was a little better, 
but something seemed wrong about the boy’s 
sight. A well-known oculist was called, and 
he ordered word at once sent to Mr. Allen that 
the trouble had all centred in the optic nerve, 
which was rapidly being destroyed, and that 
his only son must be blind forever, with no 
hope of any cure. 

It was a terrible blow to the father, whose 
hopes and plans for the future were all de- 
stroyed. His feeling for his son had been pride, 
rather than love, and this pride wq,s sorely 
wounded. A sudden press of business had 
kept him for some days from going to his boy, 
and by the time he reached him, the disease had 
made such rapid advances that Fred could no 
longer see his father, except as a dark shadow 
against the sun-lighted window. In other re- 
spects he was much better, and so anxious to be 


FRED. 


31 


at home that the next afternoon the journey 
of a few hours was taken, and in the early 
November twilight he was helped up the famil- 
iar steps into the hall, where his mother met 
him with convulsive kisses and sobs, called him 
her poor, dear little Freddie, and then — went 
away to dress for a dinner-party, leaving the boy 
to the tender mercies of the servants, who were 
thoroughly rejoiced to have him at home once 
more. 

This afternoon, directly after lunch, she had 
helped Fred to the sofa where we found him, 
put a plate of Malaga grapes and a dish of 
candy on a table beside him, and, telling him to 
ring for Mary in case he needed anything, she 
had gone away “ to take forty winks,” she said. 
But the forty winks lasted a long time, and for 
more than an hour Fred had lain there, listening 
to the dashes of rain against the window, and 
counting the street cars that jingled on their way 
past the house. 

Suddenly the door-bell rang, and, at the 
sound, a dark red flush mounted to the boy’s 
cheek, and a frown gathered on his face. 

“ Somebody coming to look at me ! ” he 


32 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


muttered ; and then lay very still, listening to 
Mary’s steps as she answered the summons. 

But when he heard a familiar voice ask, — 
“Well, Mary, is Master Fred in?” his face 
grew suddenly glad, and, sitting up on the sofa, 
he turned his head eagerly towards the door. 

Mary’s reply was inaudible to him, as she 
said, — 

“Oh, Miss Carter, I’m so glad you’ve come. 
Master Fred’s all alone out in the back parlor, 
and he’s sad enough, poor boy ! ” 

Then he heard Bess speak again: “Please 
take my cloak, Mary, it is so wet ; and ask him 
if I may go right in there.” 

“ Oh, do come quick. Miss Bessie ! ” he called 
out. “I’m so glad you have come.” And as 
he heard the door open, and the light, quick 
steps advancing towards him, he stood up and 
put out both hands to greet his guest, with no 
trace of his old fretful look. 

With a hasty glance Bess noted the helpless- 
ness that prevented his meeting her at the door, 
but she only said, as she kissed him, — 

“Well, Fred, I am so glad to have you back 
within reach once more.” 


FRED. 


33 


“You have missed me, then?” asked the 
child anxiously, as she drew him to the sofa 
and seated herself by his side. 

“ Missed you, you silly boy ! What a ques- 
tion! Of course I have. ‘We boys,’ as Rob 
says, have been longing for you to be back 
again. I have felt quite lost without you.” 

“How is Rob, — and all the other boys?” 
inquired Fred, relieved that Bess seemed so 
unconscious of his condition. 

“ Well, all of them. Rob is coming down as 
soon as you feel like seeing him. I see more of 
him than I do of any of the others. Phil runs in 
once in a while, but he is so busy all the time. 
Teddy was at the house one day last week, the 
same dear, slangy boy as ever. But tell me, 
am I not crazy to come down such a day ? ” 

“It’s a kind of crazy I like,” said Fred. 
“ You were awfully good to come, and I’ve been 
alone here ever so long.” 

“So much the better,” said Bess, mentally 
abusing the mother who could leave her boy 
under such circumstances ; “ we can have a 
real good, old-fashioned visit, and when you get 
tired of me, you may send me off.” 


34 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


Fred’s hand moved about in search of hers, 
as he asked, — 

“ How did you know I’d come? ” 

“ Rob told me last night.” 

“ Did he tell you ” — 

Fred could go no farther. Bess pulled the 
appealing little face over against her shoulder, 
and gently smoothed his hair, as she answered, 
using all her self-control to speak quietly, — 

“ Yes, dear, he did. I can’t tell you how 
sorry we all felt for our boy. That doesn’t 
make it any easier to bear, I know; but per- 
haps in time we can help you a little.” 

For the first time since his learning the sad 
truth, the boy broke down. He had listened to 
the words of the oculist without a tear, too 
much stunned even to speak, and he had met 
his father and mother with perfect quiet. But 
the few gentle, loving words had broken his 
firm resolve not to be a baby ; and the tears 
gathered fast and fell, as he sat with his head 
on Bessie’s shoulder, her arm about his quiver- 
ing little body. 

‘‘ Oh, don’t tell the boys ! ” he sobbed at 
last. “ Don’t tell them I cried. I didn’t 


FRED. 


35 


mean to ; but it’s all so dreadful, here in 
the dark.” 

The tears stood in the girl’s eyes as she 
answered, — 

“ My dear little bo}^, we all know how terri- 
ble it must be ; but I won’t tell the boys if you 
say so. Just cry it all out ; you have tried to 
be too brave. Rob almost cried for you last 
night.” 

The sobs came less often, but the look of 
sadness on the boyish face made Bessie’s heart 
ache for the child, but she said cheerfully, — 

“ Now, my son, I am going to take my old 
place as nurse to-day. You aren’t very strong 
yet, and I want you to lie down again here on 
the sofa, and if you can spare a little of this 
lunch — I don’t approve of candy between 
meals, you know — I’ll move the table away, 
pull up this low chair, and tell you all the 
news.” 

Suiting the action to the word, Bess tucked* 
the afghan round Fred’s feet, drew a willow 
chair up to the place of the despised table, and 
sat down close to the child, who once more 
reached out for her hand. 


36 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


For an hour she sat there chatting to the boy, 
telling him of the scrapes his friends had been 
in, of the pranks they had played, until she 
began to see traces of the old merry Fred, as 
the look of sorrow gave place to a smile, and 
then to a hearty laugh, while she described 
Rob’s recent attempts to climb a picket fence 
too hastily, and his being caught by his shoe and 
hung head downward, from which position he 
was ignominiously rescued by a passing Irishman. 

In the mean time, Bess was glad that her 
little friend could not see her expression, 
as she sat looking at the worn, sad face, 
and the great vacant eyes, that used to have 
such bright mischief dancing in them. But 
she forced herself to talk on, as easily as she 
could, more than rewarded by the pleasure in 
Fred’s face, and his tight grip of her hand. 

At length a step was heard on the stairs, and 
Mrs. Allen, daintily dressed and looking pro- 
vokingly fresh and unruffled, Bess thought, 
came into the room. 

“ Why, Bessie, when did you come ? How 
stupid of Mary not to tell me you were here ! ” 

‘‘I told her I came to see Fred, and not to 


FRED. 


37 


disturb you,” said Bess, as Mrs. Allen swept to 
the sofa and bent over her son. 

“ I am quite jealous of Fred, for you have 
hardly been here all the time he was away,” 
she said. “ But he needs you now badly 
enough, poor boy ! ” putting a delicately em- 
broidered handkerchief to her eyes. “Isn’t it 
hard to see him in this condition ? ” 

Again the burning flush rolled up to Fred’s 
hair, and the hand that was tightly clasping 
Bessie’s grew suddenly cold. Bess gently 
kissed him before she answered, — 

“You ought to know of my sympathy for 
Fred, Mrs. Allen. No words can express it. 
But I am glad to have him here again. We 
were having such a good talk, just like old 
times.” 

With an air of relief, Mrs. Allen took the 
hint, and left them alone again. When she 
was gone, the boy settled back on his pillow, 
saying gratefully, — 

“ It is awfully nice to have you here. Tell 
some more about the fellows.” 

So Bess talked on, racking her brains for any 
bright, funny bit of gossip that could rouse the 


38 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


lad from his depression, and give him some- 
thing to think of during the many sad, lonely 
hours that she saw were in store for him. But 
the dreamy chime of the cathedral clock on the 
mantel, as it struck four, reminded her of her 
promise to see Rob after school, and she rose to 
go, saying brightly, — 

“Now, my boy, I have worn you all out with 
such a long visit, for a first one. I must go 
now, for Rob is coming up after school, and I 
must be at home in time to see him. I hope I 
sha’n’t drown on the way,” she added, as a fresh 
gust of wind brought a flurry of rain against 
the windows. 

“I wish you needn’t go,” said the child. 
“It has been so jolly to see you again. You 
haven’t been here but a few minutes.” 

“An hour and a half, exactly,” answered 
Bess, “ but I’m coming again real soon.” 

In the early twilight of the stormy day, the 
room was growing dark. As Bess stooped to 
say good-by to the boy, she was surprised to 
feel the hot tears on his cheeks. Sitting down 
on the edge of the sofa, she drew his head 
over into her lap, and stroked his face in 


FRED. 


39 


silence, for she felt no words could comfort 
the little lad. 

“If you only needn’t go,” he said. “It all 
seems so much easier when you are here. Miss 
Bessie, I can’t stand it ! What shall I do ? ” 

“ Fred, I know it is hard, so very hard. I 
wish I could stay with you always, if you want 
me. But I will truly come again in a day or 
two. W e are all so sorry for you, and long to 
help you.” Then she asked, “ May Rob come 
some day to see you ? He is such a good little 
nurse.” 

Fred shook his head. 

“Not yet,” said he. “Fd rather not have 
the boys round just yet. But I mustn’t keep 
you. Good-by.” And, getting up, he moved a 
few steps towards the door. 

“ Don’t be in too much of a hurry, my dear,” 
said Bess. “ I must ring for Mary to bring my 
cloak. Don’t try to come to the door, you will 
only tire yourself for nothing.” And, putting 
him back on the sofa with a gentle force, she 
kissed him and was gone. 

Later, when Bess, her parents, and Rob, who 
had been prevailed upon to stay, sat at their 


40 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


dinner-table, the young lady, after silently pon- 
dering some question in her own mind, suddenly 
announced with considerable energy, — 

“ I think Mrs. Allen is the most selfish woman 
I ever saw ! ” 

Mrs. Carter, in her surprise at the outburst, 
dropped the biscuit that she was feeding to 
Fuzz, under cover of the tablecloth; for it was 
the rule of the family, agreed to by each, and 
broken by all, that Fuzz should not be fed at 
meal-times. The biscuit was at once appropri- 
ated by the dog, who trotted off to a corner with 
it in his mouth, and there proceeded to devour 
it, with sundry growls at the shaggy collie who 
gazed with longing eyes on the tempting morsel. 

“ Bess, my daughter,” began Mrs. Carter, 
“don’t be too severe. She may not be very 
strong.” 

“ Strong, mother ! How much strength does 
it take to entertain one’s son who is ill ? She’d 
better give up a few dinners and theatres. The 
idea of her leaving Fred alone all the afternoon ; 
Rob, the next time you come up here, when 
you are tired and cross and headache-y, I am 
going to take a nap, so there 1 ” 


THE BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT. 41 


I 


CHAPTER III. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT. 

True to her promise, Bess did go often to see 
her boy. For several weeks it was her habit to 
spend a part of every afternoon with him ; and 
the lad’s evident pleasure at her coming made 
her feel richly rewarded for the time she gave up 
to him. He at once recognized her step in the 
hall, and she always found him sitting up on the 
sofa, eagerly waiting for her to come to him. 

Mrs. Allen rarely appeared, and the two 
had the room to themselves, while Bess 
either read aloud, or talked to Fred as she 
sewed on some bit of work she had brought 
with her. To her mother she confessed that 
after her usual call her mind was a blank, 
for she tried so hard to think of some bright, 
interesting conversation for the lonely, sad boy. 
Her patient was not an easy one to manage, for 
though Fred rarely complained, during the long 
hours he was alone he brooded over his trouble 


42 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


until it seemed even harder than before, and 
the old days of school and games were like 
dreams of another and a happier world. His 
father was at his office all day, and his mother, 
absorbed in her social life, had little time to 
give to her son ; and both of them regarded the 
boy as well cared for if he were only supplied 
with all sorts of dainties, and had the most 
comfortable sofa and chair given up to him. 

Sometimes Bess found the child so disconso- 
late that she knew not how to comfort him ; 
sometimes he was moody, and slow to respond 
to her efforts to be entertaining, but before she 
left him, her womanly tact had smoothed away 
the frown, and forced him to laugh in spite of 
himself. And in the worst of his moods he 
was never cross to her, but always seemed 
grateful to her for her coming. 

“ If you only needn’t go home at all I ” he 
said to her one day. “ It’s lots more fun when 
you are here. Miss Bess. The rest of the time 
I just lie here and think till I get cross, and 
everything seems awful.” 

“Why do you ‘just lie here and think,’ 
then ? ” asked Bess, feeling that here was a 


THE BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT. 


43 


chance to make a good suggestion. “ You are 
strong enough now to go to drive every pleasant 
day. Why don’t you ? ” 

“ I don’t know ; I don’t want to,” said Fred, 
as the quick color came to his cheeks, that were 
beginning to have a more healthy look. 

Bess was expecting that reply, for several 
times before now she had tried to coax the boy 
into going out. But he had been ill and by 
himself for so long, and had dwelt so continually 
on himself, that he had become very sensitive 
about his blindness, a state of mind not at all 
improved by his mother’s tactless attempts at 
consolation. With Bess he could and did talk 
freely, but with no one else, and he shrank 
from meeting any one who called, and obsti- 
nately refused to see his boy friends, although 
Bess urged him to let them come. 

It was such an unnatural life for the boy, who, 
save in the one respect, was rapidly returning 
to his old strength. Once let him break over 
this sensitive reserve, and persuade himself to 
go out and enjoy the boys, and Bess was sure 
that his life would be easier to bear. 

To-day they were in their usual place by the 


44 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


fire. Bess was sewing, and Fred was by her 
side, playing with the long loops of ribbon that 
hung from her belt. Suddenly the girl rose 
and went to the window. 

Where are you going. Miss Bess ? ” 

“I am going to run away from you, you 
obstinate boy. I want to see your mother a 
minute. I’ll come back, so don’t you worry.” 

For Bess had determined on a bold stroke. 
The air inside the room was warm and heavy 
with the fragrance of roses. Outside, all was 
bright and bracing, for an inch or two of snow 
had fallen the night before, and the air after 
the storm was clear and sweet. Across the 
street, two rosy-cheeked urchins were having a 
grand snowball fight, and Bess only wished 
that she and Fred could join them. She heard 
their shouts of laughter as a particularly large 
snowball struck one of them, just as he was 
stooping for more ammunition, and half the 
snow was scattered down his neck. 

The next moment she had tapped at Mrs. 
Allen’s door. 

“ Come in,” said a languid voice, and in she 
went. 


THE BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT. 45 


Mrs. Allen, in a light wrapper, lay on a sofa, 
while Mary was kneeling by her side, industri- 
ously polishing the nails of her mistress. 

“ Mrs. Allen,” said Bess abruptly, “ may Fred 
and I have the coupd this afternoon ? ” 

“Does he want to go out for a drive at 
last? ” asked his mother. 

“ J^o, he doesn’t,” replied Bess, “ but I want 
to have him go, and I think that if the carriage 
were all at the door, I could get him started. 
May I try ? ” 

“ Of course you can have the carriage, Bessie; 
(a little more on the thumb, Mary) but why do 
you tease him, if he doesn’t want to go? It 
won’t be any pleasure to him, and if he is more 
comfortable at home, why not let him do as he 
likes?” 

Bess dropped into a chair, and wrinkled her 
brows with exasperation. 

“ Why, don’t you see, Mrs. Allen,” she said, 
“ the boy can’t spend all his life in that one 
room. He must go out of it sometime, and the 
longer he waits the harder it will be for him. 
He ought to have been out weeks ago, for he 
needs the fresh air, and he is getting just blue 


46 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


and morbid from staying alone in the house all 
this time.” 

“ Perhaps you are right (now the other hand, 
Mary). Of course you can have James and the 
coupe, if you will order what you want. It 
will be pleasanter for you, if not for Fred.” 

Bess felt her color come. She had not ex- 
pected much from Mrs. Allen, but this was too 
unkind, — to think that she was speaking two 
words for herself and one for Fred ! But Mrs. 
Allen was not fine enough to see how her re- 
mark had cut, and Bess resolved to bear any- 
thing for the sake of her boy ; so she thanked 
his mother, a little coldly, perhaps, and then 
departed to the kitchen, where she asked the 
coachman to bring the conpd to the door as 
soon as he could, and requested the plump, 
ruddy cook, the family tyrant, to get her Fred’s 
coat and hat. 

The good woman’s face brightened percep- 
tibly. 

“ An’ is it goin’ out he is ? Bless the poor 
dear b’y ; it’s a long, long time since he’s had a 
hat on his head, and it’s I as am glad to be 
gettin’ it for you. The air’ll do him good, sure ! ” 


THE BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT. 


47 


Bess thanked the woman warmly as she took 
the wraps, for she noted the difference in tone 
between the mother and the servant. Then 
she returned to the parlor, where she dropped 
Fred’s heavy coat and hat on a chair, and went 
hack to her old place hy the fire. 

““Seems to me you’ve been gone a good 
while,” said the boy, as Bess sat down on the 
sofa, and pulled his head, pillow and all, into 
her lap. 

“ I just wanted you to find out how charming 
my society is,” she said playfully, as she 
twisted his scalp-lock till it stood wildly erect. 

“ As if I didn’t know anyway,” responded 
Fred. “But what are you tr^dng to do to 
me?” 

“ Only beautifying you a little, sonny,” said 
Bess, with one eye on the window. 

In a few moments she saw the carriage drive 
up to the door and stop. She took the boy’s 
hand firmly in her own, and said very quietly, 
from her position of vantage, — 

“ Now, Fred, I have a favor to ask of you ; 
it is something I want so very much. Will you 
do it for me ? ” 


48 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ What is it ? ” asked the boy suspiciously. 

“The coup4 is all ready at the door, and I 
have brought in your coat and hat. It is such 
a lovely day, I want you to come for a drive. 
Will you?’’ 

“No, I won’t,” said the boy, turning his face 
away from her, and putting his hand over his 
eyes. 

“Listen, Fred,” said Bess firmly ; “ I know 
just how you feel about this, but is it quite 
right to give up to it? You have all your life 
before you, and you can’t lie on this sofa all 
your days. I have waited until you were 
stronger, hoping you would feel like starting 
out ; but the longer you are here, the harder it 
will be ! You will have to go sometime ; why 
not to-day ? ” 

“ What’s the use?” asked the boy sadly. “ I 
sha’n’t get any good of going. I don’t see why 
I’m not as well off here.” 

“ It is a beautiful day after the snow, and 
the air is so fresh it will do you good. You 
need some kind of a change. We will only go 
a little way, if you say so. Come, Fred.” And 
she waited. 


THE BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT. 


49 


She saw the boy shut his lips tight together, 
and two great tears rolled out from under his 
hand. Then he said slowly, — 

“ I’ll go. Miss Bessie.” 

“ That’s my dear, brave boy,” said Bess, as 
she went to get their wraps. She helped Fred 
into his hat and coat, quickly put on her own, 
and, drawing his hand through her arm, led 
him to the door, talking easily all the time to 
keep up the lad’s courage. 

Just as they came out of the house, Rob and 
Phil chanced to be passing. Turning, as they 
heard the door open and close, they saw Bess 
helping their friend to the carriage, waved their 
hats to her, and started to run back to greet 
Fred. But Bess motioned to them to keep 
away, for she felt that her charge was in no con- 
dition now to meet these strong, lively friends, 
just as he was forced to realize anew his own 
helplessness. So the lads stood sadly by, look- 
ing on while their unconscious friend slowly and 
awkwardly climbed into the carriage. Bess fol- 
lowed, and, with a wave of her hand to the 
watching boys, they drove away. 

“That isn’t much like Fred,” said Phil, as he 


50 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


turned away with a serious look on his jolly, 
freckled face. “Just think of the way he used 
to skate, and play baseball and hare and hounds ! 
It must be awful for him. But isn’t it funny 
he won’t let us go to see him ? ” 

“I don’t know,” replied Rob, meditatively 
patting a snowball into shape ; “ I guess if I 
were like what Fred is, I shouldn’t want the 
boys round, for ’twould just make me think all 
the time of the things I couldn’t do. Cousin 
Bess is awfully good to him ; she’s down here 
ever so much.” 

“ I know it. Wonder if anything happened 
to me, she’d take me up,” said Phil, half envi- 
ously. “ I just wish she was my cousin. Bob. 
Why, she’s as good as a boy, any day ! ” 

In the mean-time, Fred’s first care had been 
to draw down the curtains on his side of the 
carriage, and then he shrank into the corner, 
answering as briefly as possible to Bessie’s care- 
ful suggestions for his comfort. But her 
endless good-humor and fun were never to be 
long resisted, and he was soon talking away as 
rapidly as ever, while the change and the 
motion and the cool crisp air brought a glow to 


THE BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT. 51 


his cheeks that made him look like the Fred of 
former days. After driving for nearly an hour, 
the carriage stopped. 

“ Are we home ? ” asked Fred, starting to rise. 

“ At mine, not yours. Mother was going out 
to tea, to-night, and you have been such a good 
boy that, as a reward of merit, I am going back 
to dinner with you ; only I must stop and tell 
mother, and send word to Rob to come down 
after me. Shall I come ? ” And Bess paused 
with a smile, waiting to see the effect of her 
new plan. 

“ Oh, yes, do come ! ” said Fred eagerly. 
“ And tell Bob not to come for you too early.” 

“ What fun we’ll have,” he continued, when 
Bess had come back from the house and they 
were driving away, regardless of the wails of 
Fuzz, who surveyed them from a front window. 
“We’ll play — how I wish I ever could play 
games any more ! ” And his face grew dark 
again. 

“ You can, ever so many. But will you go 
home, or shall we drive a little longer ? ” 
J‘Home, please; that is, if you are willing, 
' Miss Bessie.” 


52 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“Fred, do you, think me a dragon?” asked 
Bess, soberly. “Now tell me truly, are you 
sorry you came out to-day ? Even if you are a 
little tired, won’t the old sofa feel all the better 
for the change?” And while she waited for 
his reply, she looked with pleasure at the clear, 
bright color that the wind had brought into his 
cheeks. 

“No, I don’t know as I’m sorry, as long as 
you came too. But it’s no fun driving alone, 
and mother’s too busy to go with me.” 

There was a pause, and then he suddenly 
asked, — 

“Miss Bess, what makes you so good to 
me?” 

“ G ood, to have a pleasant drive with my 
boy. I didn’t suppose that showed any great 
virtue. But,” added Bess more seriously, “I 
want to teach m}^ boy to make the very best of 
his life. You have one hard, hard sorrow to 
bear, dear ; but you have ever so many pleasant 
things to enjoy, if you only think of it : your 
home,” here Bessie caught her breath, as a 
vision of Mrs. Allen crossed her mind, then 
went on calmly, “ all your friends, who care so 


THE BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT. 


53 


much for you ; and then there are so many 
things you can do, as you get a little more used 
to yourself. But this is enough sermon now, 
for here you are at home. Just take my arm.” 
And she led the boy into the house and up to 
tlie fire. 

Mr. and Mrs. Allen dined out that night, and 
Fred and Bess had the house to themselves. 
Fred was so roused by the little change, and 
Bess so pleased at her own success, that their 
dinner was a merry one. Fred insisted that it 
should be served on a small table by their 
favorite fire, instead of in the imposing dining- 
room, and Mary, rejoiced at anything that could 
bring Master Fred out of his languid indiffer- 
ence, was only too glad to make the change, 
however much work it might involve for her- 
self. 

The boy was in fine spirits, in his delight at 
having Bess stay to dinner, all to himself, and 
the two told stories and asked conundrums till 
the room fairly rang with their mirth. At 
dinner, Bess sent Mary away and waited on the 
boy herself, giving him the needed help in such 
a matter-of-course fashion that he forgot to feel 


54 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


sensitive about it until long after his guest had 
gone. 

After dinner, when the table was cleared 
away, and Fred’s sofa moved again to the fire, 
they both settled themselves on it for a quiet 
chat. The fire shone out on a pretty picture. 
Bess, in her dark red gown, sat leaning luxuri- 
ously against the dull blue cushions of the oak 
sofa, while Fred was close by her side, with his 
hand through her arm, his head on her shoulder, 
listening with a laughing face to his friend’s 
account of some college frolics. There was no 
light in the room but the steady glow from the 
grate, that plainly showed their faces, but for 
the moment kindly hid the sad, blank look in 
Fred’s once beautiful eyes, and only gave them 
a dreamy, thoughtful expression, as from time 
to time he turned his face up to Bess. 

In the midst of their conversation, the bell 
rang, and the next moment Mary, privately 
instructed by Bess, without word of warning 
ushered Rob into the room. For a minute he 
stood, hesitating whether to speak to Fred or 
not, but Bess quickly came to the rescue. 

“ Why, Rob, here so soon ? Come up to the 


THE BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT. 55 


fire ; there’s ever so much room here on the 
sofa.” 

And Fred’s voice added, — 

“ Hullo, Bob! ” as he hospitably made room 
for his guest. 

There was another pause as Rob seated him- 
self, for neither boy knew just what to say. 
Fred had straightened himself up, and was 
twirling his thumbs, while Rob crossed his feet 
and uncrossed them again, as he methodically 
folded up his soft felt hat into a neat 
bundle. 

As both boys declined to break the silence, 
Bess again took the lead. 

“ Is it cold to-night ? ” she asked Rob. 

“ Yes it’s freezing fast, and ’twill be fine 
skating to-morrow. All us boys are planning 
to go ” — And Rob came to a sudden halt, as 
the idea dawned on him that such subjects were 
not interesting to Fred, who asked abruptly, — 

‘‘How’s Phil?” 

“He’s well,” replied Rob laconically, deter- 
mined to make no mistake this time. 

“What’s Bert Walsh doing with himself?” 

“ Football, of course.” And both the boys 


56 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


laughed, for Bert’s chronic devotion to the 
game was the joke of all his friends. 

But the next moment Bess felt Fred’s head 
come over against her shoulder. Rob watched 
him pityingly, not daring to speak his sympa- 
thy, tliough he read his friend’s thought. 

“ We’ve been reading ‘ Story of a Bad Boy,’ 
this afternoon,” said Bess, trying once more to 
start the boys. Rob caught eagerly at the bait. 

“Isn’t it fine! That Fourth of July scrape 
just suits me.” 

And the boys were all animated as they dis- 
cussed the details of the story. Bess sat and 
watched them, occasionally putting in a word 
or two, and soon all constraint had vanished, as 
the talk ran on from subject to subject, and the 
long year of separation was a thing of the past. 

Rob, mindful of what Bess had told him 
about Fred’s sensitive reserve, tried to seem 
perfectly unconscious of the change in his boy 
friend, but he looked anxious and troubled, 
between his sympathy for Fred, and his desire 
to say just the right thing. But when Bess 
rose to go, and Fred was slowly following her 
to the door, Rob could stand it no longer, 


THE BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT. 57 


“ Say, Fred, I’m awfully sorry for you ! ” he 
blurted out. 

Contrary to his expectations, the simple, 
boyish pity went right to Fred’s heart, and did 
it a world of good, but he only said, — 

“ It isn’t much fun. Bob, I tell you. But 
won’t you come down again some day ? I wish 
you would.” 

And Bess went home, well pleased with her 
day’s work. 


68 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


I 


CHAPTER IV. 

THE OTHER BOYS. 

Bess was in her element. 

“Cousin Bess,” Rob had said that morning, 
“ may some of us boys come up to-night, or 
will we be in the way?” 

“Not a bit of it!” replied Bess heartily; “I 
wish you would. Who are coming? ” 

“Oh, just the regular crowd, Ted and Phil 
and Bert and Sam. The boys wanted me to 
ask if we might, for fear you’d be out, or busy, 
or something.” 

That afternoon the first flakes of a snow- 
storm were falling, as Bess started to make her 
usual pilgrimage to Fred, and by evening it lay 
over all things soft and white. 

“I am afraid your boys won’t come,” said 
Mrs. Carter, as they sat lingering over their 
dinner. “ It is too bad, when you are all ready 
for your candy-pull.” 

“Don’t you worry,” predicted Bess, as she 


THE OTHER BOYS. 


59 


slyly dropped a morsel in front of the nose of 
Fuzz, who for once lay asleep. “It will take 
more than this snow to keep those hoys away, 
unless Teddy has one of his colds and can’t 
come. I wish Fred could have been here.” 

“Why didn’t you have him?” asked her 
mother. 

“ Have him ! ” echoed Bess. “ It is easy to 
say ‘have him,’ but except for half a dozen 
drives, he has refused to go out at all ; and he 
won’t see any of the boys but Rob. Poor Rob 
tries to be very devoted, but I dimly suspect 
Fred is occasionally rather cross.” 

“ Who could blame him ? ” said Mrs. Carter. 

“ Rob takes it very meekly,” Bess went on, 
as she slowly peeled an orange. “ Fred never 
shows that side to me, but I think it is there. 
But it is really scandalous the way Mrs. Allen 
goes on. Fred is left to himself the whole 
time, just when he needs so much help physic- 
ally, mentally, and morally.” 

“I wish you could have him all the time, 
Bess,” said her mother. “You are good for 
him, and he enjoys you.” 

“ Let’s adopt him, mother ! He’s splendid 


60 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


material to work on, and I would take him in 
a minute if I could. Think of me with an 
adopted son ! ” And Bess drew herself up 
with an air of majesty as she began to devour 
her orange. Suddenly she laughed. 

“ I was so amused the other day, Saturday it 
was, when I went down to Fred’s in the after- 
noon. I was later than usual, and Rob hap- 
pened to be there ahead of me. You know I 
always go right in without stopping to ring, 
and that day, as I went, I heard loud voices in 
the back parlor. I went in there, and found 
that -the boys had evidently been having a 
quarrel, for Fred had turned his back to Rob, 
and was decidedly red in the face ; while Rob 
sat there, the picture of discomfort, his face 
pale, but his eyes fairly snapping. He departed 
as soon as I went in, and neither boy would tell 
me what was the trouble. Fred said he didn’t 
feel well, and didn’t want to see Rob, anyway. 
I offered to go away too, but he wouldn’t allow 
that.” 

“ What did Rob say for himself ? ” asked Mrs. 
Carter. 

“He said he supposed Fred was angry at 


THE OTHER BOYS. 


61 


something he had said in fun. He was quite 
distressed over it, and offered to apologize, but 
I advised him to just wait a few days till Fred 
recovered from his tempers.” 

“ Much the best way,” assented Mrs. Carter. 
‘‘Fred mustn’t grow tyrannical. Here come 
the boys.” 

It was a needless remark, for at that moment 
there was heard a sudden chattering of young 
voices, the sound of ten feet leaping up the 
steps, and the laughter and stamping as the boys 
shook off the snow. Fuzz darted to the door, 
barking madly, while an echo from without 
took up his voice and multiplied it fivefold. 
Bess picked up the wriggling little creature, 
who was carried off by Mrs. Carter; then she 
admitted her young guests, who came in all 
talking at once. 

“ Such a deep snow ! ” 

“ Five or six inches, at least ! ” 

“I tell you, that fire looks dandy ! ” 

“ Phil fell down just below Bob’s gate.” 

“ Good evening. Miss Bessie. So jolly of 
you to let us come ! ” 

“ I am ever so glad to have you care to 


62 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


come, boys. But come right in to the fire and 
dry those wet feet. Phil, I am glad to see you 
wore rubber boots.” 

“ They’re all full of snow where I fell down,” 
answered Phil, as he struggled to pull them off. 
“ Here, Bob, help a fellow, will you ? ” 

And the boots came off with a jerk, while a 
shower of half-melted snow proved the truth of 
his statement. 

As the lads drew their chairs to the fire and 
prepared to toast their toes, a moment must be 
given up to glancing at them, as they sit re- 
counting to their hostess their varied experiences 
in the storm. 

At her left hand sat Phil Cameron, a short, 
slight, delicate-looking boy of thirteen, whose 
gray eyes, large mouth, pug nose, and freckled 
face laughed from morning till night. Every- 
body liked Phil, and Phil liked everybody in 
return. His invariable good temper, and a 
certain headlong fashion he had of going into 
the interest of the moment, made him a favorite 
with the boj^s ; while his elders admired him 
for his charming manners and his wonderful 
soprano voice, for he and Rob had the best 


THE OTHER BOYS. 


63 


voices in the little village choir. Though not 
overwhelmed with too much conscience, Phil 
was a thoroughly good boy, and one that his 
teachers and older friends petted without know- 
ing exactly why they did so. 

Beyond him sat his great friend and boon 
companion in all their athletic games, Bert 
Walsh, the doctor’s son, a lad whose poet’s 
face, with its great, liquid brown eyes, and 
whose slow, deliberate speech, gave -no indica- 
tion of the force of character that lay below. 
Like Phil, he was fond of all out-of-door sports, 
but, unlike him, he was fond of books as well. 
A strong character, emphatic in its likes and 
dislikes, Bert’s finest trait was his high sense 
of honor, that was evident in his every act. 

On the other side of Bess was the minister’s 
son, Teddy Preston, the oldest of eight children, 
a frank, healthy, happy boy, good and bad by 
turns, but irresistible even in his naughtiness. 
Brought up in a home where books and maga- 
zines were always at hand, though knees and 
toes might be a little shabby, Ted had contrived 
to pick up a vast amount of information about 
the world at large ; and, added to that, he had 


64 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


the happy faculty of telling all he knew. With 
an easy assurance he slipped along through life, 
never embarrassed, and taking occasional well- 
merited snubs so good-naturedly that his friends 
might have regretted giving them had they not 
known only too well that they slid off from his 
mind like the fabled water from a duck’s back. 
A year younger than Phil, his yellow head 
towered far above him, and he outgrew his 
coats and trousers in a manner entirely incom- 
patible with the relative sizes of the family 
circle to be clothed, and of the paternal salary. 
But Ted never minded that. He carried off his 
shabby clothes as easily as Bert did his perfectly 
fitting suits, and seemed in no way concerned 
about the difference. 

A year older than any of the other lads was 
Sam Boeminghausen, a short, sturdy boy, a 
real German, blond, phlegmatic, and good- 
humored. But his light blue eyes had a look of 
determination that suggested that the day might 
come when Sam would be something or some- 
body. His father had recently made a large 
fortune in Western cattle-ranching, and, as 
yet, the family had not entirely adapted them- 


THE OTHER BOYS. 


65 


selves to their new surroundings. Sam’s gram- 
mar was erratic, and his expensive garments 
had the look of being made for another and a 
larger boy. But time would change that, and 
under the careless speech and rough manners 
Bess could see the possibilities of a glorious 
manhood. 

On the floor at Bessie’s feet sat our old friend 
Rob, poking the fire with the tongs. The light 
fell on his fine, soft, brown hair, delicate skin, 
and great, laughing dark eyes. Rob was the 
descendant of a long line of refined ancestors, a 
real little gentleman, and he showed it from 
the perfect nails on his small slim hands, brown 
as berries though they were, to the easy posi- 
tion in which he now sat, with one foot curled 
under him. A gentle, shy boy, affectionate and 
easily managed, he was an inveterate tease, and 
full of a quiet fun that sparkled in his eyes and 
laughed in his dimples. 

But while we have been gazing at the five 
lads, all so different from one another, there 
was a sudden burst of applause as Bess rose, 
saying, — 

Now, boys, if you are all dry, I am going 


66 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


to invite my company out into the kitchen. 
What do you say to making molasses candy 
and popcorn balls? It is just the night for it.” 

“ That’s just dandy ! ” exclaimed Ted, spring- 
ing up with a force that sent his chair rolling 
back some inches. 

“Ted, if you talk slang I sha’n’t give you 
any to eat,” said Bess laughingly. “But come, 
boys.” And she led the way into the large 
kitchen, where her mother soon followed them 
with five large gingham aprons in which she 
proceeded to envelop the lads, in spite of their 
derisive comments. 

“I am not going to have you spoil your 
clothes, children, for then your mothers will 
scold us. Now, if I can’t help you, Bess, I am 
going to stay with F uzz ; and I leave you to do 
your worst.” 

“Don’t go, Mrs. Carter,” implored Ted, and 
the others echoed him ; but Mrs. Carter was 
not to be bribed, even by Phil’s noble offer to 
let her do his share of the work. 

“ I will eat your share of the candy, Phil, but 
I am going to stay with Mr. Carter and Fuzz. 
I’ll come and look at you by and by.” And, 


THE OTHER BOYS. 


67 


drawing her white shawl around her, she was 
gone. 

Bess quickly divided her forces. Rob and 
Ted were set to shelling the corn, while Phil 
and Bert scorched it and their faces at the same 
time. The impressive duty of stirring the 
molasses she reserved for herself, assisted at 
times by Sam. 

For a short time all went well. But just as 
the bright new pan was nearly full of the white 
kernels, and the molasses was beginning to 
show its threads, a sudden determined bark was 
heard at the door, and the scratching of two 
active little paws. Then followed the sound of 
Mrs. Carter’s voice in warning tones, — 

“ Fuzzy mustn’t scratch the doors ! No, no ! 
Grandma ’pank.” 

An instant’s pause was succeeded by a fresh 
onslaught on the door by the small delinquent 
who scorned “ grandma’s ” threats, having 
learned from past experiences that patience 
would carry the day. 

“ It's Fuzz,” said Rob. “ Can’t I let him in. 
Cousin Bess?” 

“ I wouldn’t, Rob ; he will be so in the way.” 


68 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


Another assault followed, while the boys 
laughed irreverently as Mrs. Carter’s voice was 
again heard, protesting, — 

“ Come here. Fuzz ! Come to grandma ! 
Mustn’t scratch ! Come play ball ! ” 

“ You’d better let him come,” said Bert, as 
he waved the corn-popper to and fro. 

“ I suspect I shMl have to, if we are to get 
any peace. But you must all promise not to 
give him one bit of the candy if he comes ; it 
always makes him sick. Now promise.” 

“ Yes, yes,” said the boys. 

Rob, who was through with his labors, went 
to open the door, and Fuzz came rushing into 
the midst of the group, growling, squealing, 
and wagging his tail in his delight at having 
conquered, as usual. 

Suddenly there was a crash, a yelp, and a 
cry of rage from Ted. The boys had set the 
full pan of corn into a chair. Fuzz, liking the 
flavor of popcorn as well as any boy, had* gone 
to get some ; and, standing with his forefeet on 
the edge of the dish, to eat at his leisure, he 
had tipped the pan, corn and all, over on the 
top of his curly head. 


THE OTHER BOYS. 


69 


“Never mind, the floor looks clean. We'll 
pick it up,” said Phil consolingly. 

So the four boys dropped on their knees and 
began to collect the scattered kernels, eating 
industriously the while ; and Bess, yielding 
the spoon to Sam, made futile attempts to 
catch Fuzz, who frisked about, now on Rob’s, 
back, now rubbing back and forth under Ted’s 
nose. 

The candy was finished and set out in the 
snow to cool, while ten hands were washed and 
buttered, ready to make the corn-balls and to 
pull the candy. Fuzz, meanwhile, had wan- 
dered back to the parlor. 

“ This is fine ! ” said Bert, scientifically roll- 
ing the balls into shape. “ But what ails yours, 
Sam?” 

“I don’t know,” replied that youth, as he 
patted and poked at a mass that insisted on 
sticking to his fingers, but obstinately refused 
to hold itself together. “It won’t stick to 
itself half as much as it does to me.” 

“Why don’t you throw it away and start 
fresh ? ” was Phil’s suggestion. 

“I can’t. It won’t throw.” And the boys 


70 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


shouted, for Sam’s tone was discouragement 
itself. 

“ Did you put enough butter on ? ” queried 
Bess, who stood at the other side of the room, 
working with Rob and Phil. 

“ Butter — No! I forgot to use any,” replied 
Sam, with an accent of mild disgust. 

“Isn’t that candy outside ’most cold?” asked 
Ted anxiously. “ I am afraid it will be 
covered up in the snow.” 

“ I’ll go see,” said Bert, extricating himself. 

He went outside, but reappeared announcing, 
“ It’s cool,” as he displayed one of the platters 
in proof of his statement. “ Isn’t there another 
dish. Miss Bess ? ” 

“ Two more, Bert, one platter and the little 
deep plate. You know there was just a little 
left, and I put it in there. They are right 
where the other was.” 

“ I’ll go and help him look,” and Sam 
departed, glad of a chance to scrape off the 
sticky compound on his fingers. 

The platter soon came to light, but the boys 
reported the small plate as missing. 

“I don’t see where it can have gone,” said 


THE OTHER BOYS, 


71 


Bess. “ But never mind. Come in before you 
freeze, boys.” 

The next moment, screams of hysterical 
laughter were heard from the parlor, and Mr. 
Carter opened the kitchen door, saying, — 

“Just see here a minute.” 

The boys ran into the next room, and Bess 
followed, to find Mrs. Carter lying back in her 
chair, while tears of mirth ran down her cheeks. 
Before her sat Fuzz, the image of dejection and 
shame, with the long, soft locks about his nose 
and mouth smeared and stiffened with the fast- 
drying molasses until they resembled so many 
dingy spines. As the boys came in, with a 
sheepish wag of his tail, he sat up straight and 
deprecatingly waved two little forepaws, one of 
which was caught and held fast in the missing 
dish of candy. 

As soon as any one could speak, the mystery 
was explained. Fuzz had teased to go out of 
doors, and his master, not thinking of the 
candy, had let him have his own way. He 
found the candy, promenaded across the small 
platter once or twice, and then settled himself 
for a feast, unmindful of the fact that, while he 


72 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


was eating, one paw, resting on the soft candy- 
in the little dish, was rapidly sinking down 
into it. By the time his appetite was satisfied, 
the cold had hardened the candy until the foot 
was held fast. Just then he heard Bert coining 
out, and, with a startled yelp and a clatter. 
Master Fuzz guiltily fled, plate and all, to the 
front steps, where his master had let him in. 
While Bess and the boys finished the candy, 
now almost too hard to pull, Mrs. Carter took 
the dog in hand and, after man^^ trials, succeeded 
in freeing him from his trap. 

Then five sticky but very happy lads, each 
with a piece of adhesive candy, settled them- 
selves around the fire once more, with Bess in 
their midst. 

“ Only half an hour more we can stay,” 
sighed Ted, who was luxuriously seated in the 
wood-basket. “ It’s been an immense lark. Miss 
Bess ! ” 

“Yes,” said Phil, trying to let go of his 
candy, while he put on the slipper that Rob 
had just knocked from his toe where he was 
balancing it, “ this is the best fun I’ve had since 
Christmas.” 


THE OTHER BOYS. 


73 


“ Is it still snowing? ” asked Bess. 

“Yes,” said Bert. “It will spoil all the 
skating. The snow has held off so long, but it 
has come to stay.” 

“ It will be just dandy coasting, though,” said 
Ted. 

“Teddy,” interrupted Bess, “if you say 
‘ dandy ’ again. I’ll take your candy away from 
,you. I’ll tell you, boys, let’s form an anti-slang 
society; I really think you use too much for 
the parlor. It is well enough if you must have 
a little on the ball-field, but I don’t like it in 
the house, so much of it.” 

“But, Miss Bess,” urged Phil, “if we use it 
in our games we can’t stop, and the first we 
know it just comes out, whatever we are doing.” 

“ Then drop it entirely, if it must be so. 
Y ou boys don’t want to hear me say, ‘ I’ll bet,’ 
and ‘ dandy,’ and ‘ bully,’ now do you ? ” 

“ I hain’t never used any of them words,” 
said Sam, raising his head with a proud con- 
sciousness of innocence. 

Ted and Phil glanced at each other, and 
Rob’s eyes looked wicked, but he never moved 
a muscle. 


74 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


It was Bert who came to the rescue. 

“What a shame Fred couldn’t be here, Miss 
Bess ! We fellows miss him awfully.” 

“ I’ll tell him you said so, Bert. He will be 
glad enough to know it, for he has such a dread 
of his old place getting filled, as time goes on.” 

“ Why didn’t he come ? ” asked Phil, turning 
his corn-ball from side to side, to see where to 
take the next bite. 

“ I knew it would be no use to ask him,” 
Bess replied. “ I think you boys would be so 
good for him, but he dreads to see you.” 

“ I went there twice,” remarked Ted from his 
basket, “ but the girl said he had told her not to 
let any one see him but you and Bob. He was 
such a jolly lad that I just want to see him 
again. Has he changed any. Miss Bessie ? ” 

“Very little, Ted,” answered Bess. “Now, 
if you will get up long enough to let me have 
a stick for the fire, then I propose we have some 
games while you stay. What shall it be ? ” 

Dumb crambo carried the day, and Bess, Ted, 
and Rob were chosen as actors. In the midst 
of an elaborate dental scene, where Rob ex- 
tracted a tooth with the tongs, and filled 


THE OTHER BOYS. 


75 


another with hammer and chisel, the clock 
struck nine, and Sam started up. 

“ I must go home,” he said reluctantly. 

“Must you go, Sam?” asked Bess, and Ted 
added, — 

“ Oh, stay just ten minutes more. We’ll be 
through this word then.” 

“ I’d like to,” said Sam wistfully, “ but I told 
father I’d leave at nine. You boys can stay if 
you want to, but I must go.” 

“ I am sorry you have to leave us, Sam,” said 
Bess; “but you are right, if you promised your 
father. Are you all going?” For the others 
had trooped to the door. 

“I must,” said Bert, and the others joined 
him. 

There was a great sorting-out of overcoats and 
hats, and Phil’s feet were with difficulty stowed 
away in his rubber boots. 

“Good-night, Miss Bess; I’ve had a dandy 
time,” said Ted, with a wink. 

“You have given us a very pleasant evening,” 
said Sam, with a flourish that was intended to 
be easy and graceful ; while Phil added, — 

“ Tell Fred to come next time.” 


76 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Good-night ! good-night ! ” screamed a 
chorus, as they darted out into the snow, where 
Phil at once stumbled and fell into a drift, 
from which he was pulled by Rob and Bert. 

Bess returned to the parlor fire and sat down 
on the rug, while Fuzz, his paw now freed from 
his candy, climbed into her lap and imprinted 
sticky caresses on her nose. As she sat there, 
thinking over her boys, her mother joined her. 

“Well, Bessie, has it been a success? ” 

“ I should think so ! How funny the boys 
are ! Ted will wear me out with his constant 
‘ dandy ; ’ that is his great word now. But 
Rob is the boy of them all. Mother, next time 
I’ll have Fred here, if I have to bring him by 
force.” 

“I wish you could. Would it do any good 
to ask him up here for a day or two? I 
shouldn’t mind him in the least, and it might 
be a change for him.” 

“ I wish he would come. That house is the 
worst place for him. His parents neglect him, 
the servants coddle him, and he tyrannizes over 
them all. He needs a good, wholesome, every- 
day atmosphere.” 


THE OTHER BOYS. 


77 


“ Try to get him to come, then,” said Mrs. 
Carter. “ I really should like to have him 
here, and if you can give the time to him, it 
will be real mission work.” 

“I’ll try,” said Bess, “but I fear me. Oh, 
mother ! ” And, lying back on the rug, she 
laughed hysterically. 

“Well?” 

“ That Sam Boeminghausen will be the death 
of me ! To-night he had a piece, a large piece 
of candy in his hand when I passed the corn- 
balls. Instead of taking one in his other hand, 
he coolly replied : ‘ Just wait till I git this 
down.’ And he actually kept me standing there 
while he deliberately devoured his candy.” 

“Bess!” 

“ It’s a fact, and I was left speechless.” 

“After all,” said Mrs. Carter meditatively, 
“ I rather like the hoy’s idea. He was going 
to make a ‘ clean sweep,’ as Teddy would say, 
and not have any scraps left over. And I did 
think his going home when he wanted so much 
to stay was really heroic.” 

A yelp from Fuzz cut short the conversation. 


78 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


CHAPTER V. 

WALKS AND TALKS. 

It was one of the mild, warm days that, 
even in the midst of winter, come to our New 
England coast towns. The snow had all 
melted, and the mud had dried away, while here 
and there patches of grass showed a green 
almost like that of summer. Over the leafless 
trees the sun shone warm and bright. 

Bess Carter slowly came down the steps of 
her home with Fuzz before her, tugging at his 
lead. Half-way to the gate she raised her eyes 
from a refractory glove button, and saw her 
little cousin coming towards her. His hat was 
pulled down over his eyes, his hands plunged 
deep into his pockets, and his very walk express- 
ive of some deep determination. Absorbed in 
his meditation, he did not notice his cousin 
until Fuzz gave a shrill bark of recognition. 
Then he looked up, saw her, and took off his 
hat, but scowled vindictively the while. Bess 


WALKS AND TALKS. 


79 


saw that something* was wrong, and, as Rob had 
started to spend the afternoon with Fred, she 
surmised that there had been another quarrel. 

“Well, Robin, my boy, is anything the mat- 
ter? ” she asked cheerfully. 

“ No, only I’m not going to see Fred again in 
a hurry, and I guess he knows it,” Rob replied, 
stopping and putting both elbows on the fence, 
preparatory to a conversation. 

“What has happened, Rob? I don’t see 
why you boys always come to grief. Fred is 
pleasant enough to me.” 

“ Maybe he is,” said Rob half sulkily. “ I 
s’pose I’m the one to blame.” 

“ Tell me all about it, Robin,” said Bess. “ I 
know Fred is cross sometimes, but just think 
how hard it all is for him, this being shut up by 
himself.” 

“ He needn’t be shut up if he doesn’t want 
to,” said Rob impatiently. “ It’s his own fault, 
if he won’t see the boys.” 

“ Oh, Rob, don’t be so hard on him ! ” 

“ Well, I know, but he needn’t be so un- 
commonly cross, then. I’m sorry for him, but I 
just won’t go there any more.” 


80 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ What was the trouble to-day ? ” asked Bess, 
leaving the question of future visits to be 
settled later. 

“ Why, nothing, only Fred asked something 
about Bert, and I said something or other about 
the polo game. Fred began to ask all about it, 
and so I told him. He seemed so interested, 
but all of a sudden he stopped and said, ‘ Bob 
Atkinson, I wish you’d keep away from here ! ’ 
And I didn’t know what the matter was, so I 
asked him. He said, ‘You always do say the 
meanest things, and I wish you wouldn’t come 
any more. You’re always round in the way.’ 
And then I flared up. I didn’t mean to, cousin 
Bess, but I’d stayed home from the polo game 
just to go to see him, and I was awful mad. A 
fellow can’t stand everything, and I’d only just 
answered his questions.” 

“ I know, Rob. But, you see, only a year 
ago Fred was in all these good times, and I 
suppose it was more than he could bear, to hear 
about them, when he knew he couldn’t have 
any of the fun.” 

“ What did he ask about it for, then ? ” 

“ He probably did want to hear it all, only it 


WALKS AND TALKS. 


81 


was too much for him. He ought not to be so 
irritable, I know, Rob; but I want you to go 
round in a day or two and ‘make up.’ You 
can afford to be forgiving, when you think how 
much more you have than he does. And then, 
Fred does deserve a great deal of credit, for he 
rarely complains.” 

“Yes,” assented Rob, “ but he’s no end cross. 
But I’ll go, cousin Bess. Where are you going 
now ? ” 

“Just for a walk. It is so pleasant I 
couldn’t stay in the house. Come with me if 
you’ve nothing else on hand.” 

“ May I ? ” Rob’s face brightened. 

“ Take Fuzz while I button my gloves, please. 
Where shall we go ? ” 

“ Let’s take the woods road to the shore,” 
said Rob eagerly. “ There’s lots more things to 
see that way.” 

The “ woods road ’•’ was a charming walk, 
that mild January day. On one side rose, tall 
and straight, the glorious old oaks and chest- 
nuts, and through their branches capered whole 
families of red squirrels, whose antics and 
chattering nearly drove Fuzz to frenzy. On 


82 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


the other side lay the pretty, open fields, with 
their bunches of corn stalks, and their low, 
irregular fences. It was a favorite drive, but 
footpath there was none, so Rob and Bess were 
forced to wander along the middle of the road, 
turning aside occasionally to let a carriage pass 
them, while Fuzz barked defiance at its occu- 
pants. 

“ Cousin Bess,” asked Rob, “ you know 
when birds fly south in winter, they go 
straight; how do you s’pose they know the 
way ? ” 

“I don’t know, I am sure, Rob. Perhaps 
they remember from year to year.” 

“ I don’t believe they do. How fast do you 
suppose they fly? I’ve watched them lots of 
times, and they go so fast — Here, Fuzz ! ” 
as the dog made a dash towards a dignified goat 
that was lunching on a dead blackberry vine 
by the wayside. 

‘‘Sha’n’t I lead him, Rob? He must tire 
you.” 

“Not a bit. He’s strong, though. How 
much could he pull, I wonder? My teacher 
told me the other day that no animal could pull 


WALKS AND TALKS. 


83 


more than its own weight. Do yon believe 
that, cousin Bess ? ” 

“ What an idea, Rob ! You must have mis- 
understood Miss Witherspoon. Just think of 
the loads of coal that horses draw, and the 
crowded street cars.” 

“ Yes, but she doesn’t know much, anyhow,” 
said Rob, with a lofty scorn that amused his 
cousin, who secretly shared his opinion. “ But 
do you know what lots of turtles grow up 
in there ? ” and Rob pointed in among the 
trees. “ I had six all at once last summer, and 
we used to set them to running races. It was 
hard work to make them go straight ahead, 
though.” 

“Rob,” asked Bess, “why don’t you be a 
naturalist? I think you might be a good one.” 

“Would you?” And Rob waited for his 
cousin’s reply as anxiously as if his choice of 
profession must be made on the spot. 

“ You are too young yet to tell ; but you 
seem to like such things, and you keep your 
eyes wide open when you are out of doors. 
I don’t know why you couldn’t be trained 
for it.” 


84 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“I like birds and things, and I’ve watched 
them a good deal, and then I like to be round 
out of doors. But I don’t care much to read 
about them ; I’d rather just look at pictures, 
and then see for myself.” 

“ But a good naturalist must study and read, 
as well as watch.” 

As Bess spoke they stepped out on the 
smooth, dry sand of the beach that stretched 
beyond them to the right and left in the form 
of a crescent, one of whose horns bore the 
white lighthouse, while the other ended in a 
pine grove. Before them, the little waves 
danced up and down in the sun, that was turn- 
ing their green water to a living, moving gold, 
while here and there the white gulls rode 
smoothly on the water, or whirled above it in 
their flight. Across the harbor lay the crowded, 
fantastic cottages and the large hotel of the 
summer colony, now deserted and forlorn ; 
while close at hand rose three or four rough, 
jagged rocks, with a narrow strip of sand con- 
necting them with the beach. 

“ Let’s go out to the Black Rocks,” suggested 
Rob. “Maybe we can find some starfish. I 


WALKS AND TALKS. 


85 


want to get a live one and watch him crawl 
with his little sucker feet.” 

Bess followed the boy’s lead, and soon they 
were scrambling over the rough, slippery sur- 
face of the rocks, that, at high tide, were nearly 
covered with water. Fuzz dashed through all 
the little pools left by the last tide, and was 
soon absorbed in worrying a large snail that 
had injudiciously poked its head out of its 
shell. 

Rob had vanished from sight, but he soon re- 
appeared with scratched hands, and triumph- 
antly asked, — 

“ Like raw oysters, cousin Bess ? ” as he 
threw half a dozen shells at her feet. 

“ What fun, Robin ! Where did you get 
them ? ” asked Bess, as, unmindful of her years 
and dignity, she sat down on the slimy rock, 
and with a small stone tried to pry open the 
shells. 

“You’ll have to smash them,” said Rob, as 
with one scientific blow he crushed the shell, 
removed the fragments, and offered the oyster 
to his cousin. 

“ What an original idea ! ” she said, laughing. 


86 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


as she took it. “ I didn’t know we were going 
to have an oyster supper, Rob.” 

As a frolic, it was a great success ; but as a 
meal it would hardly have satisfied a ravenous 
appetite. Oysters were small and scarce, 
though Rob succeeded in finding quite a num- 
ber. Then, too, the operation of opening them 
was attended with some difficulty, which was 
increased by Fuzz, who persisted in running 
away with the oysters that were laid by in 
reserve. But the rapidly sinking sun and the 
rising tide warned Bess that it was high time 
to think of a return ; so Rob was forced to 
abandon his search for more food, and they 
turned their faces homeward. 

As they came into the village again, Bess 
said, — 

“ I must just stop a moment at Fred’s. Will 
you come too? He is coming up to-morrow to 
stay till Monday, and I want to tell him what 
time I’ll go down after him.” 

“ Whew ! ” Rob vented his feelings in a long 
whistle. “However’d you get him started? 
I’ll go with you, though.” 

“ He didn’t want to come, when I first pro- 


WALKS AND TALKS. 


87 


posed it; but now he quite likes the idea. You 
must come up and help entertain him, for I 
have no idea what I shall do with him for three 
days.” 

“What’ll you do with Fuzz, take him in?” 
queried Rob, as they turned in at the Allens’ 
gate. 

“No, I will just tie him to the piazza rail,” 
answered Bess. “ He would only trouble 
Fred.” 

So Fuzz was left to wail his heart out on the 
front steps, while Bess, according to her usual 
custom, went directly in, without the formality 
of ringing the bell. 

Fred was sitting alone by the fire, moodily 
pulling to pieces a tea-rose bud. At Bessie's 
step he rose and came to meet her, with his 
usual eager smile ; but as he heard the sound 
of another person, he drew back again and 
waited. 

“It’s me, Fred,” said Rob’s voice. “I came 
to tell you I was sorry I. made you mad.” 

“Oh, Bob, I’m glad you’ve come back! I 
was horrid.” 

And the reconciliation was complete. 


88 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


Bessie’s errand was quickly accomplished, for 
Fuzz was testing the hardness of the front 
door, and it seemed prudent to withdraw before 
he forced a passage through one of the panels. 
So, promising to come down again the next 
afternoon, to superintend the moving, the two 
cousins took their departure. 

The next afternoon saw Fred settled in the 
Carters’ parlor, with Fuzz asleep at his feet. 
The little animal, after his first resentment of 
this intrusion on the family circle, seemed to 
realize that Fred needed his especial care and 
protection. He attached himself to the boy’s 
side, whining gently for attention, and occa- 
sionally giving a pleading scratch with his little 
paw, when the desired petting failed to be 
given. His snappish ways were laid aside, and 
he even allowed Dominie Sampson, the collie, 
to come and rub against Fred, without giving 
vent to a single snarl. 

When the carriage stopped at the door, and 
Bess had led the boy into the house, Mrs. 
Carter had met him with a motherly kindness 
that made him feel at home with her at once. 
Fred could not see the tears that caine into her 


WALKS AND TALKS. 


89 


eyes at sight of the change in him, but the 
warm kiss on his cheek, and the gentle “We 
are so glad to have you here,” told the story. 

Those three days were the beginning of a 
new life to Fred. At home, he had moped and 
meditated. His parents, by their every word, 
reminded him of his trouble, and made him 
feel in countless little ways, well meant though 
they were, that he was not like other boys, not 
what he used to be. Here it was all so different. 
Beyond the little necessary help that Bess gave 
him so easily and pleasantly, there was nothing to 
suggest to him his blindness. Bess read to him, 
played simple memory games with him, or, with 
his hand drawn through her arm, they walked 
up and down the long hall, talking and laugh- 
ing gayly, while Fuzz tagged at their heels. 
He held Mrs. Carter’s skein of yarn while she 
wound it, and in many little ways began to 
live more like a natural boy, less like a wax 
doll. 

The evenings were the pleasantest times. 
Then Mr. and Mrs. Carter were deep in their 
cribbage, by the lamp ; and Bess sat in a low 
chair in front of the crackling fire, with Fred 


90 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


on the rug at her feet, one arm in her lap, and 
his head on his arm, while she stroked his hair, 
and told him all sorts of bright, merry stories 
about the places and people that she had seen. 
For Bess had travelled through nearly every 
State in the Union, and had observed and re- 
membered much that she had seen, so, with the 
flashes of fun and bits of pathos that she knew 
so well how to give to her descriptions, she was 
no mean story-teller. 

But the three days were soon over, and on 
Sunday, the last day of Fred’s visit, the gather- 
ing twilight found him pacing up and down 
the room with Bess, now talking, now taking a 
few turns in silence. 

Suddenly Bess said, — 

“ Fred, you are going to church with me 
to-night.” 

“ Oh, no, Miss Bess ! Please not ! ” 

“ Yes, Fred, I want you to escort me down. 
It is ever so long since you have heard the 
boys sing, and you have no idea how they have 
improved. We will go early, if you say so, 
and get all settled before many people get there, 
but I want you to go with me. The service is 


WALKS AND TALKS. 


91 


short and won’t tire you, and it will be a good 
ending for our pleasant little visit together.” 

“Must I go, Miss Bessie? Well, I will,” 
replied the boy with unwonted meekness. 
Then he suddenly added, “ Oh, how I hate to 
go away to-morrow ! ” 

“ Has the visit been a success ? ” asked Bess, 
as they went into the* parlor and she guided 
Fred to his favorite chair. 

“ Yes, I’ve had such a good time, and you’ve 
all been so kind to me ! Time doesn’t seem 
half so long, and I don’t feel near so cross and 
tired here, as I do at home. I wish mother 
liked to do things with me half as well as you 
do.” And Fred’s face looked worn and troubled. 

“She has so many other things to see to,” 
said Bess soothingly, “and I shall be down 
often. But, Fred, are you cross every time you 
feel like it? ” 

Fred blushed. 

“I’m afraid I am. Miss Bess. I am sorry 
afterwards, but, in the time of it, I don’t think. 
You see, I can’t do anything at all, and when 
things go wrong, it seems worse than ever, and 
the first I know, I’ve said it.” 


92 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Just like Fuzz,” said Bess, as the dog raised 
his head from his basket, and gave a low, angry 
growl at the Dominie, who entered the room. 
“I know it is hard for you, Fred, when things 
go wrong, to be good-natured, but I want you 
to try as much as you can. I think you would 
be better olf if you had some regular occupa- 
tion, something to do with yourself.” 

“ What is there ? ” asked the boy hopelessly. 

“ I am not quite sure ; let me think it over. 
But come, we must have our dinner, and be 
ready for church.” 

As the procession of surpliced boys advanced 
up the middle aisle, Rob, who always came in 
with one eye on his cousin’s seat, nearly dropped 
his book in astonishment, for at her side stood 
Fred, motionless and rather pale, his great 
brown eyes turned towards the chancel, his 
whole air and attitude suggestive of patient, 
anxious waiting. With a comically expressive 
glance at Bess, Rob passed on. A few steps 
back of him, leading the men, Bess noticed a 
new chorister whose boyish face, under a mass of 
curly brown hair, was striking from its delicate 
outlines, and told of a refined, happy nature. 


WALKS AND TALKS. 


93 


The service went on much like all services. 
Fred mechanically rose and sat down with the 
rest, but Bess could see that the familiar words 
were making no impression on his mind. She 
had been glad that he could not see the expres- 
sive nudges and glances exchanged as, drawing 
his hand through her arm, she led him up the 
aisle to her usual seat. Once there, he shrank 
into a corner, just as some too audible words 
met his ear ; — 

“ What’s the matter with that boy in front?” 

“ Blind, and always will be. A peculiar case, 
started from St. Vitus's Dance. Isn’t it too 
bad ? One of our best families.’ 

“ Who’s the girl ? His sister?” 

“No, only a friend. She's perfectly devoted 
to him, they say.” 

Bess looked anxiously down at him, to see 
how he bore these comments. He pressed his 
lips tightly together, and the hot blood rushed 
to his face and then back, leaving it white and 
still. She put her hand on his reassuringly, 
and felt the answering pressure. That was all , 
but for the first time Fred had heard himself 
talked over by strangers as a case likely to 


94 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


attract attention on all sides, wherever he went. 
In time it would not hurt him so much, but 
now — it was a bitter thought that his infirmity 
could not pass unnoticed. He wondered if all 
the people around him were watching him. 
Perhaps they were all whispering about him, 
only more softly. And they would look to see 
how he acted, whether he was awkward, and if 
he seemed sad. If he could only know just 
how many eyes were turned on him ! Miss 
Bess had no idea how hard it was for him, or 
she would never have asked him to come. 
And Rob and Phil and the other boys, had they 
looked surprised to see him there ? 

Poor Fred! Had he but known that, except 
for Bess and Rob, who w’-as watching in pity his 
friend’s white, sad face, not a person in the 
church had a thought of him, now the service 
had begun! But what was the rector saying? 
— “The words of the anthem will be found” — 
And there was to be an anthem, then; Rob did 
say something about it. “ Remember now thy 
Creator in the days of thy youth.” — What was 
that whisper? Some one calling attention to 
“poor Fred Allen”? But Miss Bess was 


WALKS AND TALKS. 


95 


rising, and he must too. He felt her small 
gloved hand rest lightly on his, as it lay on the 
rail in front of him, and he drew closer to her 
side — one friend who would not talk him over 
and wonder about him. 

But the few notes on the organ were over, 
and then a voice filled the church, a rich, mel- 
low tenor, now rising till the arches rang with 
its clear, high tones, now falling to a dreamy 
quiet, half covered by the sound of the organ. 
It was the new chorister. Standing there in 
the full glare of the gas that shone down on his 
innocent, boyish face, he seemed to be singing 
from very love of it, so simply and easily, as if 
the truth and dignified beauty of the words 
were filling his soul and insisting on utterance. 
“ In the days of thy youth, when the evil days 
come not, nor the years draw nigh.” Fred 
stood as if in a trance, listening to the wonder- 
ful voice, forgetful of the faces about him, for- 
getful even of his blindness. “ While the sun, 
or the light, or the moon, or the stars be not 
darkened.” Then the voice grew low and sad : 
‘‘ And fears shall be in the way ; ” but again it 
rose triumphant, at the last hopeful burst; 


96 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“And the spirit shall return unto God who 
gave it.” 

“ Just look at Fred Allen ! ” whispered Rob 
to his neighbor, as they sat down, and the con- 
gregation drew a long breath after their eager 
listening, and turned to congratulate each other 
on the rich musical treat. 

The boy seemed transfigured. With his 
head thrown up, his lips parted, and his cheeks 
flushed, he seemed held by the singer’s intense 
feeling. But the voice died away, and he came 
back to a consciousness of the place where he 
was, and of the cloud that darkened for him 
the sun and the light. 

“Who was it?” asked Bess, as Rob came up 
to where they still sat, waiting for him. 

“Who? That tenor? He’s a friend of Mr. 
Washburn, and sings in one of the large 
churches in New York. He just knows how to 
sing, too ! Coming home now ? ” 

Rob was looking unusually handsome as he 
stood there. His love of music, and the hearty 
way he joined in the singing, seemed to excite 
him, and it brought a bright color to his cheeks 
and a glow into his brown eyes. As the two 


WALKS AND TALKS. 


97 


boys stood together, they made a strong contrast ; 
Rob so delicately, nervously alive, quick, active, 
and full of quiet, happy fun ; and Fred slower 
ill his motions, now more than ever, and with a 
solid, sturdy strength that was little suggestive 
of his helplessness, while his face and manner 
were so sad and subdued. With a quick glance 
as she rose, Bess noted the difference in the 
faces, and rejoiced at the tact beyond his years 
that Rob showed as he guided his friend down 
the aisle and out into the starry night. 

“ How good the boys are for each other,” she 
thought. “ I wish they might be together more 
than they are. Fred brings out all Rob’s 
chivalry and unselfishness, while Rob stirs him 
up and keeps him alive.” 


98 


HALF A DOZEN HOYS. 


CHAPTER VI. 
feed’s new home. 

“Really, James,” said Mrs. Allen, with a 
yawn, “ I’ve half a mind to go with you.” 

“I wish you could, my dear,” said her hus- 
band, after a puff or two at his cigar. “But 
what could we do with Fred? ” 

“That’s the trouble. You know you prom- 
ised you would take me the next time you 
went, for I have never been. Couldn’t we put 
him in an asylum? ” 

“ I don’t think we could,” said Mr. Allen 
decidedly. “1 should never feel it was right 
to leave him in one, and go off to enjoy our- 
selves.” 

“I don’t see why not,” pouted his wife. 
“He would have every care, and the best of 
teaching. It’s awfully inconvenient having 
him here, and” — 

“ Hush ! ” said Mr. Allen sharply. “ The 
doors are all open, and he may not be asleep. 


FRED’S NEW HOME. 


99 


Don’t let the boy hear you say that. He has 
the worst of the trouble.” 

“I know,” said his wife meekly, for when 
Mr. Allen spoke in that tone, she knew it was 
time to obey ; “ I only thought if he would be 
as well off in some institution, and leave us a 
little more free, it would be a good thing. 
This care is wearing on me terribly.” 

“Poor Fred! He’s a good boy,” observed 
his father; “and I think he has shown some 
pluck the last few months.” 

“ W ell, he has had everything possible done 
for him,” said Mrs. Allen, as she drew a vase of 
hyacinths towards her, and began to rearrange 
them. 

“ I wish we could plan to have you go with 
me,” Mr. Allen went on. “ I was going last 
summer, and only waited till Fred was better. 
I must go now, at once ; and if you could come, 
if w*e had somewhere to leave Fred, we would 
stay over a year and make a complete tour, take 
a run to Egypt, and go up to Norway.” 

“ I certainly must go. To begin with, think 
of me alone here with just that boy, morbid as 
he is ! I should be insane.” 


100 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“We might take him with us,” suggested 
Mr. Allen. 

“ James ! The very idea ! I’d rather stay 
at home than go through Europe tied to a 
blind boy. I should never have a moment to 
myself.” 

“ Why couldn’t he board at the Carters’ ? ” 

“The very thing! Fred had such a good 
time there three weeks ago I He would be so 
happy, and Bessie is very good to him. I 
really think he considers her as a sort of 
mother.” 

“Well he may,” said Mr. Allen. “We owe 
that girl a debt we can never repay. But I 
wonder if they would take Fred. They have 
never had boarders, and he would be a great 
deal of care.” 

“Not so much,” said his wife, shifting her 
ground to suit the new question at issue. “ He 
could have Mary go with him to wait on him. 
You can arrange it, I know. You send them a 
note to-morrow, and if they will take him, I will 
be ready to sail — let me see, this is Wednesday. 
I will be ready next Wednesday.” 

“I will try to arrange it,” said her husband 


FRED'S NEW HOME. 


101 


thoughtfully. “But I do hope they won’t feel 
I am asking too much. When I think of it, to 
placidly request that they take an invalid and 
his servant to board for a year, is a good deal.” 

“Nonsense!” said Mrs. Allen. “You can 
pay them well ; and, really, James, if Fred 
would only rouse himself, he would be as well 
as ever. He makes a good deal out of his 
blindness.” 

“Why, Louise, what do you mean? I have 
never heard him complain.” 

“No, he doesn’t complain, exactly, but 
just lies on the sofa, and doesn’t care for any- 
thing or anybody, and when I try to comfort 
him, he turns away his face and won’t. say any- 
thing. But I’m sleepy. I’m going to bed ; 
and you just write that note to-night, so they 
will get it to-morrow, surely.” And she went 
away, leaving her husband to muse over his 
cigar, in the light of the dying fire. 

His wife was trying, at times. Years ago he 
had married a pretty little society girl, not so 
much because he loved her as that he wished a 
suitable head for his pleasant suburban home. 
Socially, Louise Allen fulfilled all the require- 


102 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


merits ; but her husband often longed for a 
companion, but found none in the selfish, way- 
ward woman who presided over his household. 

“Poor little Fred!” he thought, as he sat 
there. “ I am afraid the boy has had a hard 
life of it. Louise doesn’t mean to neglect him, 
but she has so much else on her hands. I won- 
der what it’s like, anyway.” And leaning back 
in his chair he closed his eyes for two or tliree 
minutes, and then opened them, with a shudder, 
on the brightly lighted room. “ It must be 
awful, sure enough, to be in such darkness. 
Well, I hope the Carters can take him in. He 
will be contented there. Louise ought to con- 
sider him a little more.” But the thought 
never occurred to him that he, James Allen, 
could ever spend an evening at home, giving up 
his club or theatre, to entertain the boy, as 
much his son as the son of Louise. 

The next evening, Mr. Carter came in with a 
letter, which he handed to his wife. She took 
it, read a few lines, and uttered an exclamation. 

“ What is it ? ” asked Bess, looking up from 
the game of dominoes she was playing with 
Rob. 


FRED'S NEW HOME, 


103 


“ It is from Mr. Allen,” answered her mother, 
“ I will give it to you as soon as I finish it.” 

“From Mr. Allen? How queer! Go on, 
Rob, it is your turn.” 

“ See what you think,” said Mrs. Carter, 
giving Bess the letter. 

Bess read it hastily, looked at her mother, 
and then read it again, slowly and thought- 
fully. 

“ Well?” asked her mother. 

“ Why, Fm not the one to decide,” said Bess. 

“ What’s up ? ” inquired Rob. 

“ Mr. Allen is going abroad for a year, and 
takes his wife with him,” explained Mrs. Carter, 
“ and he wants ” — 

“ Cousin Bess to go too ? ” interrupted Rob 
so disconsolately that they all laughed. 

“Console yourself, my dear little cousin,” 
said Bess, “He only wants us to take Fred to 
board.” 

In his secret heart, Rob thought that was 
almost as bad. With Fred here all the time, 
good-by to his pleasant walks and games with 
his cousin. He was silent, but Bess read his 
thought. 


104 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Don’t worry, Robin, the house is plenty 
large enough for two boys, and I’ll not let Fred 
cut you out.” 

Mr. Allen’s note was the perfection of tact. 
He spoke of his invalid son, whose happiest 
hours were spent with the friend that had done 
so much to brighten his dark life ; he regretted 
the pressing business which called him abroad 
just then, but Mrs. Allen’s health, much shaken 
by sorrow for her son, demanded a change and 
freedom from care. He went on to suggest 
very delicately that it would be a great 
accommodation if Fred might board with them ; 
that Mary would be at hand to wait on him, to 
free them from any restraint, while she could 
either board with them or come in at certain 
hours ; and, finally, that he should expect them 
to call on his coachman with perfect freedom, 
during his absence. 

“What do you think of it, Bess?” asked 
her mother again. 

“ Why, mother, you must decide. I am not 
the one.” 

“Yes, you are,” replied her mother, “for it 
will make more difference to you than to the 


FRED’S NEW HOME. 


105 


rest of us. Fred would be largely under your 
care. Are you strong enough to go through 
it?” 

“ I think I am,” said Bess slowly. “ I should 
like him here, if you and father don’t object. 
The boy has to learn all over again the very 
A B C of living, and he has no one to teach him 
but us. Only, I don’t want Mary.” 

“ Who would take care of Fred, to give him 
what help he needs ? ” asked Mr. Carter. 

“ I would,” responded Bess promptly. “ He 
doesn’t need much, and it will be less every 
day. Mary would be only an extra care and 
worry. She would be half servant, half com- 
panion, and that would just upset Bridget. 
We don’t want her round in the way.” 

“ I think you are right,” said her mother. 
“But think this over carefully, Bess. If you 
don’t feel equal to it, don’t try. I shall not be 
able to do much, and it will make a great care 
for you.” 

“ I know it, mother ; but I think I can go 
through with it. Fred will be happy with us, 
and Bob will help me with him, won’t you, 
dear ? ” 


lOG 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ One thing more, Bess,” said her father 
seriously. “If you start on this, you must 
make up your mind not to give up all your 
time to the boy, even if he does want you. You 
must go out, and walk, and make calls, as much 
as ever. You are not going to turn hermit for 
a year in your devotion to one small boy, how- 
ever much good you may do him. And it 
would not do him good, either. He must grow 
self-reliant and unselfish, and not feel that he 
must be amused and waited on every moment.” 

As if to add his opinion to the family dis- 
cussion, Fuzz, whose attention was caught by 
the serious tones of their voices, jumped out of 
his basket, and, coming to the side of his mis- 
tress, sat up on his haunches, and waved his 
small paws in the air, as he swayed unsteadily 
from side to side in his eagerness. 

“ What is it, F uzz ? ” asked Rob, leaning over 
to pat his head. 

Fuzz only replied with a snarl so emphatic 
that it showed his very back teeth, and then 
turned again to Bess, and raised his paws higher 
than ever. 

“Bess, that dog grows crosser every day,” 


FRED’S NEW HOME. 


107 


said her mother. “You really ought to give 
him a hard whipping for snapping at Rob like 
that. What will Fred do, with such a cross 
animal about ? ” 

“ He liked Fred, and if he is let alone I don’t 
think there will be any trouble,” said Bess, 
ready to take up the cudgels in defence of her 
pet. “I don’t think he feels well to-night; he 
never snapped at Rob before.” 

“Fuzzy is a bad dog! Come here to grand- 
ma,” said Mrs. Carter in slow, measured tones, 
as she glared at the dog, who looked in her face 
for a moment, and then turned his head away 
with a prodigious yawn. “ Children, you must 
not laugh. He never will mind then. Well, 
Bess, what do you think? Shall we let Fred 
come?” 

“ Yes, I should like it so much, unless it 
would be unpleasant for you and father. You 
know I threatened once before to adopt him. 
Does he want to come ? ” 

“They haven’t, Mr. Allen says, told him 
anything about their plans, until they could 
settle on something. Will you write to Mr. 
Allen, then ? ” 


108 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“Yes, I will write this evening. But come, 
Rob, we’ve time for just one more game.” 

The note was written, and the next evening 
Mr. Allen called to arrange for Fred’s coming 
four days later. The boy was to be left in the 
care of Bess, on w'hose judgment Mr. Allen 
felt he could rely. After an hour spent in dis- 
cussing various minor details, Mr. Allen said, 
as he rose to go, — 

“We have said nothing to Fred as yet. Miss 
Carter, about this; so suppose you tell him, 
that is, if you can spend time to-morrow to 
come down for a few moments. And, in case I 
do not have time to call again, I will say now 
how much Mrs. Allen and I feel indebted to 
you for taking our son into your home.” 

And with a stately how he was gone. “ Did 
you ever see such an old iceberg ! ” remarked 
Bess disrespectfully, as she returned to the 
parlor fire to thaw herself out. “ Between him 
and Mrs. Allen I should think Fred would be 
thankful for any change. Next Tuesday! 
Well, there’s a good deal to be done between 
now and then. Shall you worry, mother, with 
a new son on your hands?” 


FRED’S NEW HOME. 


109 


“Not at all,” said her mother heartily. “He 
is not my property, anyway ; though if I see 
you going very wrong, I shall put in my 
word.” 

“ Oh, do ! ” said Bess. “ I feel half terrified 
at the thought of my responsibility. Still, I 
think that, at least, I shall do as well as Mrs. 
Allen.” 

The next afternoon Fred lay stretched on 
the sofa in an unusually dismal mood. The 
whole house was in a bustle ; his mother and 
Mary had been up-stairs all day, rummaging 
through closets and drawers, with not a 
moment to spare for him ; the fire had gone out 
in the grate, and there was no one near to build 
him another; and, worst of all. Miss Bess had 
not been near him for four days, while Rob had 
not been down for two weeks. Everybody had 
forgotten him, and he wished he could forget 
himself. Oh, for something to do ! With 
nothing but eating and sleeping to break the 
monotony, life was so dull. He envied the 
man whom he heard shovelling coal into a 
neighbors cellar. He could fancy just how he 
stooped and gave his shovel a powerful push. 


110 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


raised it with one swing of his strong arms, 
and tossed it down into the opening before him ; 
only stopping occasionally to wipe his forehead 
on his grimy sleeve. Fred felt to-day that he 
would give up all his comfortable home, just to 
change places with that man for one little hour, 
and be able to see and work. 

“ Lost in ‘ maiden meditation,’ Fred ? ” asked 
Bessie’s voice at his side. 

The boy sprang up with a glad cry. 

“ Oh, Miss Bess ! I didn’t hear you come in. 
How glad I am you are here ! ” 

“ I mustn’t stay but a moment,” said Bess, as 
she sat down on a mussy pile of pillows and 
afghan. “ How is your mother? ” 

“ She’s well ; but she’s awfully busy,” re- 
plied Fred, leaning on the back of a chair, with 
his chin in his hands. “ I don’t know just what 
is up, but I haven’t seen her since breakfast — 
at least, she hasn’t been here,” he added 
hastily, for he was gradually giving up the old- 
time expression. 

“ I can tell you, if you wish to know,” said 
Bess quietly. “She is going to Europe next 
Wednesday with your father.” 


FRED’S NEW HOME. 


Ill 


Fred’s face became so blank with astonish- 
ment that she hastily went ©n. 

“ But you are not going to be left here to 
keep bachelor’s hall, nor to go with them. In- 
stead, what do you say to coming to our 
house ? ” 

There was no doubt of the answer. Too 
happy to speak, Fred dropped on the sofa, and 
turned his face to Bess, while a bright flush 
rose in his cheeks. At last he said, — 

“ Is it really true. Miss Bess ? Can I ? May 
I? It’s too jolly!” 

“ So you like the idea ? Can you stand it 
for a year, and not get homesick ? ” 

“ Homesick ? ” echoed Fred in lofty scorn. 
“ I guess not ! When can I come ? Did you 
say a year ? ” 

“ You are to come next Tuesday afternoon at 
four o’clock, and you are to stay about a year. 
And now I must run away home again, for I 
have ever so much to do. But, first, let me 
straighten out this sofa. What a muss! Get 
up a moment.” 

And Bessie shook up the pillows, folded the 
afghan, took Fred by his shoulders and put 


112 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


him back in the old place, and was gone. At 
the gate she was met by her attendant, Rob. 

“ What did he say ? ” inquired that youth, as 
she reappeared. 

“ Not very much, but I don’t think he 
objected.” 

The next two days were as busy to Bess as 
they were long to Fred, who no longer envied 
the coal-heaver. A room adjoining Bessie’s 
was to be given up to the boy, and she took 
much care and pleasure in arranging it. 

“ I feel just like a child with a new doll,” she 
told her mother. “ I want this room to be just 
as pretty and inviting as if Fred could see it.” 

By Tuesday noon, the room was ready, even 
to the tiny vase on the table, holding one pink 
rosebud. 

“ Boys do care for such things, though they 
don’t say much about it,” Bess told her mother 
and Rob, whom she had invited to inspect the 
results of her labors. “ That sofa is my especial 
delight, though,” she added, pointing to the 
broad, old-fashioned couch between two western 
windows, where Fuzz lay serenely asleep on 
one of the cushions. “That can be Fred’s 


FRED’S NEW HOME. 


113 


growlery, where he can retire whenever he feels 
cross. I trust he won’t use it often.” 

Two hours later, as the carriage came up the 
drive, Mrs. Carter stood waiting on the steps, 
while Bess ran out to meet Fred. The boy, 
clinging to Bessie’s arm, came slowly up to the 
door. 

“Welcome to your new home, Fred,” said 
Mrs. Carter’s voice. 

And he answered as he gave her gentle face a 
great boyish kiss, — 

“ It’s just splendid to come.” 


114 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


CHAPTER VII. 

“AND WHEN THE FIGHT IS FIERCE.” 

After a week or two spent in making Fred 
feel at home and settled in his new quarters, 
Bess suggested her next plan. It was after 
church one Sunday night, and Bess was sitting 
with her hat still on, by the parlor fire, while 
Fred and the Dominie were in a promiscuous 
pile on the rug, where Fred had been eagerly 
listening for the familiar step on the walk out- 
side. Since he had been at the Carters’, he had 
lost much of his fretful look, and seemed 
better and brighter in every way. Mrs. Carter 
petted him, and talked with him, giving him 
many little hints of the way in which he might 
even yet be a useful, happy man ; while her 
husband laughed and joked with him, and 
occasionally teased him a little. But, after all, 
it was neither gentle Mrs. Carter, nor her 
genial husband, to whom the boy turned for 


“AND WHEN THE FIGHT IS FIERCE.” 115 


advice and sympathy in every question that 
came up. To him, Miss Bess was the one 
person in the world, and well might he feel so, 
for she was most unselfishly kind to him. 
From the moment when, on leaving his room in 
the morning, he met her at the door, ready to 
guide him down the unfamiliar stairs, until, 
after he was all in bed, she came in to say a 
last good-night, she was constant in her atten- 
tions to him, and adapted herself to his every 
mood, bright and full of fun when he was blue, 
encouraging when he was despondent, and with 
apparently nothing to do but read to him or tall^ 
with him. When she went out, as she did nearly 
every afternoon, she always came in with some 
amusing adventure or bit of boy news to tell 
him ; and while she was gone, he spent the time 
petting the dogs, and counting the moments 
until her return. When her step was heard, he 
always started to the door, and, as she reached 
it, he opened it before her, and stood smiling up 
at her as she closed it, and, with an arm around 
his shoulders, swung him about, and marched 
him back to the fire. And Bess learned 
to watch for this greeting, and stepped more 


116 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


heavily as she came up the walk. Adoration, 
even from a child, is pleasant to have. 

To-night, as Bess sat there Avith Fuzz in her 
lap and Fred at her feet, she was thinking hack 
to that ill-fated day, just a year ago, when Rob 
had come home and announced that Fred had 
won the school prize. Such a change in the 
year! But the boy must not grow up in 
ignorance, even if he were blind. At her sug- 
gestion, it had been agreed with his father that 
Fred was to begin to have a few simple lessons 
again, of which Bess was to have the care. 

“ You know as well as I do. Miss Carter, 
what will make Fred happiest and best. I 
leave him wholly to you,” Mr. Allen had said. 

The boy lay, his head pilloAved on the dog’s 
shaggy side, his face anxiously turned towards 
Bess, as if trying to read her thoughts. Sud- 
denly she said, — 

“ Well, Fred, what do you say to our starting 
on our lessons to-morrow ? ” 

“ What do you mean. Miss Bess ? ” said the 
boy, sitting up. 

“ Only just this, that I think it is time you 
went back and took up a few lessons again.” 


“AND WHEN THE FIGHT IS FIERCE.” 117 


Fred rose to his feet and began to walk 
slowly up and down the room. 

“ How can I ? ” he asked sadly. “ I don’t 
see how I can study any more.” 

“ This way, Fred,” said Bess, as, putting 
down the dog, she went to join him in his 
march; “from nine till twelve every day, I 
have time to give up to it. We will shut our- 
selves up in a corner by ourselves, and I will 
read your lessons over to you a few times, and 
then ask you questions about them. You can 
do ever so much in that way; and we don’t 
want you to stop all study, even if you can’t 
read to yourself. How does the idea strike 
you?” 

“I like it,” said the boy, whose face had 
been brightening again; “only it won’t be 
much fun for you.” 

“ Never you mind about me, my laddie,” said 
Bess cheerfully, “ I will look out for myself.” 

And so it came about that for two or three 
hours each morning, while Mrs. Carter was 
busy about the household cares that not even 
her delicate health had made her willing to 
resign to her daughter, Bess and the boy settled 


118 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


themselves in the library, where Bess read 
aloud to the child, explaining as she read, and 
he listened eagerly, delighted at being able to 
break away from his forced inaction. Bess 
found liim an apt pupil, and added to their 
other studies many simple lessons in the natural 
sciences, teaching the boy to understand the 
world around him, as well as to see it through 
her eyes. As college was out of the question 
for the lad, she tried to teach him just those 
facts that would be of the most interest and 
use to him, throwing aside any formal “ course ” 
of study, and only endeavoring to answer the 
questions that came up in the course of their 
readings. And such questions ! Any young, 
healthy boy of ordinary intelligence can ask a 
surprising and perplexing number of questions ; 
but Fred, shut up within himself as he was, 
with plenty of time for quiet thought, sur- 
passed them all, and often sent his tutor on a 
wild search through encyclopaedias and diction- 
aries, for a clear explanation of some knotty 
point. 

All this time Rob had been very neighborly, 
for it had always been his habit to run in to see 


“AND WHEN THE FIGHT IS FIERCE.” 119 


liis cousin nearly every day ; and for some time 
after Fred came the two boys were on most 
harmonious terms. In spite of everything, Rob 
was jealous of Fred, and would gladly have 
changed places with him for the next year ; but 
he kept this feeling to himself, with an instinct- 
ive fear that it might make cousin Bess feel 
badly. 

For Fred’s own good, it seemed to Bessie 
that, first of all, his shyness must be overcome ; 
for, in spite of all her efforts to encourage him, 
he still showed his aversion to going out or 
meeting people, and always fled to his rOom 
when any one came to call. Accordingly, one 
evening Bess asked the boys, Rob and his four 
friends, to come in for an hour, thinking that 
Fred would enjoy it when once they were 
there. As the boys came in, with all their 
laughter and fun, she turned to speak to Fred, 
but no Fred was there. 

“I heard him go up-stairs a few moments 
ago,” said her mother. “I will go up and call 
him.” She returned presently, looking rather 
anxious. 

“ He says he doesn’t feel well, and has gone 


120 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


to bed. He doesn’t want anything,” she said 
to Bess. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” said Bess, almost impatiently. 
“What will the boys think, when I invited 
them to see him ? ” 

But the boys were ready to forgive every- 
thing, and the evening’s games were pronounced 
a great success. As they went away, Rob lin- 
gered behind for a moment, to ask Bess if she 
thought Fred really ill. 

“ Oh, no ; nothing serious, if it is anything 
at all. He may have some little headache, but 
I suspect it was just because he dreaded meet- 
ing you boys.” 

An hour later, as Bess went to her room, 
she stopped to listen at Fred’s door. All was 
quiet, and she concluded that the boy was 
asleep. But just as she was falling into her 
first doze, she thought she heard a noise from 
the next room. Raising herself on her elbow, 
she listened intently, and soon caught the sound 
of a smothered sob. She quickly put on a wrap- 
per and slippers, and went into Fred’s room. 

“ What is it, my boy ? Are you ill ? ” she 
asked anxiously. 


AND WHEN THE FIGHT IS FIERCE.” 121 


“ Oh, Miss Bess ” — and Fred’s voice broke. 

“ What is it, dear ? ” asked Bess again. 

“ Nothing — only — I couldn’t see the boys 
to-night — and — and ” — 

Bess sat down on the edge of the bed, and 
took the child’s hand in hers. 

“ Is that the reason you ran away ? ” 

Yes.” 

“ But, Fred, the boys came to see you.” 

“ I know. Miss Bess, but when I heard them, 
I just couldn’t stand it. They are all so dif- 
ferent from me, and I can’t do anything at all, 
and — and I didn’t want them round. They 
didn’t care.” 

“ They did care, Fred ; and I cared very, 
very much. It worries me to have you hide 
when any one comes here. And I had asked 
the boys, you know.” 

“ I know it ; but, Miss Bess, you don’t know 
how hard it is I That night at church I just 
felt as if they were all looking at me, and 
would talk about me as soon as I went home. 
It’s the not knowing that’s the worst. And 
when I hear the boys, it seems as if I couldn’t 
always be different from them.” 


122 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ My poor little Fred,” said Bess, as she 
passed her hand gently across the boy’s fore- 
head, and hot, tear-swollen eyes, “ I wish so 
much, as much as you do, that it need not be 
so. But, Fred, half the battle lies, not in 
bearing your trouble, but in making the best 
of it. It is so hard, but each time you try it 
will grow easier. I read once of an old blind 
woman who called all the good things that 
came to her ‘chinks of light;’ and perhaps, if 
we try very hard, w^e shall find some ‘ chinks ’ 
for you.” 

“ I wish you could,” said the child, with a 
long, sobbing breath. “ It’s all so dark.” 

“Well, dear, isn’t Rob a ‘chink’? You 
dreaded him at first, just as you do Phil and 
Teddy now. But, now you are used to him, 
you enjoy his coming in. Wouldn’t it be so 
with the other boys ? ” 

“ ’Tisn’t so bad with just one, but when they 
are all here ” — 

“Yes, but if you had once seen them, Fred, 
to wear x)ff a little of the strangeness ? It is a 
year that you have been away from them, but 
they are just the same dear boys that you used 


“AND WHEN THE FIGHT IS FIERCE.” 123 


to enjoy so much. And they are fonder of you 
than ever, for they are all so sorry for you, and 
want to help jmu.” 

“ That’s the worst of it,” said Fred im- 
patiently ; “ nobody can forget I’m blind one 
single minute ! ” 

“ Do you remember, Fred,” asked Bess, 
“ when Bert sprained his ankle two years ago ? 
You boys went often to see him, and he enjoyed 
your running in. He didn’t expect you to for- 
get that he couldn’t step on his foot for three 
or four weeks, did he ? ” 

“Yes, I know that,” admitted Fred; “but, 
after all, ’tisn’t the same thing a bit. He was 
going to get right over it, and be as well as 
ever, and I can’t ever do anything any more. 
Oh, Miss Bessie, I wish I could die and be 
through with it ! ” And the hot tears rolled 
down on her hand, as it lay against his 
cheek. 

Poor Bess was at her wit’s end. The boy 
was nervous and excited, and she felt that she 
must quiet him, but she knew not what to say. 
His trouble was too great, too real, to make 
light of it ; and yet, now was the time, if ever. 


124 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


to impress on him the idea that he could and 
must be a man, in spite of it. 

“ ‘ And win with them the victor’s crown of gold,’” 

she thought to herself, as she listened to Fred’s 
convulsive sobs. 

“ My dear hoy,” she said very gently but 
firmly, as she put her arm around him and drew 
him over against her shoulder, “ I want you to 
try to stop crying and listen to me. You say 
you can’t ever do anything more, like the rest 
of the boys, but you have one chance that Rob 
and the others have not. One thing you can 
be now, while their turn hasn’t come yet.” 

“What is it? ” asked Fred wonderingly. 

“ A hero, dear. A brave boy, who will grow 
to be a braver man. We know too well that 
you can never see again, but because you can’t 
see, that is no reason you should be a coward 
and want to die. We aren’t put here, Fred, 
just to have a good time ; but instead, we are 
to make just as much of ourselves as we can, 
with what is given us. Because you can’t go 
to college, or play baseball, or skate, you need 
not think there is nothing you can do. Which 


“AND WHEN THE FIGHT IS FIERCE.” 125 


is better, to be a great scholar and a strong, 
active man, or to bear bravely a sorrow like 
yours, be cheerful in spite of it, and, in think- 
ing how to make people around you a little 
happier and better, forget your own loss? I’m 
not hard in saying this, Fred, but I am looking 
years ahead, and telling you what will make 
you the best and happiest man. Do you believe 
me?” 

The boy’s gesture was answer enough. 

“ What would you think, Fred,” she went on, 
“ of a soldier who, in his first fight, ran away 
because he feared he might be hurt ? I know 
you would call him a coward, but isn’t that 
about what you did to-night? It would, per- 
haps, have hurt a little at first, but isn’t it 
braver to face the pain now, than to run away 
from it, and put it off till another time ? And 
the next time it would be just as hard, and a 
little bit harder. The boys had come up here 
to see you, thinking you were all going to have 
a bright, pleasant time together once more. In 
a way, they were as much your company as 
mine ; but you went off and left them, with 
never a thought of their disappointment, you 


126 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


were so anxious to escape being hurt. Was 
that quite worthy of my boy ? ” 

“1 suppose I’m cowardly and selfish,” said 
Fred rather bitterly. “ What else ? ” 

“ A thoroughly wretched little boy,” answered 
Bess quickly. “I am not scolding you, Fred; 
only trying to help you. Now answer me 
frankly ; if you had come down to see the boys, 
even if you did find it hard, wouldn’t you have 
been happier now than you are as it is ? ” 

“ I suppose so,” admitted Fred reluctantly. 
“ But, truly, I didn’t mean to be hateful.” 

“ Neither does the soldier who runs away 
from his place, but he isn’t as brave a man as 
the one who stays. But, Fred, you can do these 
very boys a world of good, if you only try in 
the right way.” 

•‘How?” 

“ This way. If they can see you going about 
with them, patient and uncomplaining in your 
great trouble, it will teach them to bear their 
little ones in the same way. If they see you 
bright and cheerful, the old jolly Fred they 
used to know and love, they will feel there is 
something worth living for besides school and 


“AND WHEN THE FIGHT IS FIERCE/^ 127 

games. They will be more thoughtful and 
considerate, and through helping you and each 
other they will come to help every one who is in 
trouble. And you will be so much more happy, 
too. If all this shyness were gone, so you 
needn’t be in constant dread of meeting some 
one besides ourselves and Rob, you could go 
out freely, take long walks with me, and be 
with the bo3^s. I want you to live, my boy, 
not so that people will pitjr you for what you 
have lost, but admire you for what you are in 
spite of it all. Isn’t that the truer way for 
our hero to live ? ” 

“ I will t^y. Miss Bess,” said Fred slowly. 
“ I know I am a baby, but I really do want to 
be brave.” 

“That is my dear Fred! The old Greeks 
used to say, ‘Not to live, but to live well.’ 
We will take that for our motto, and hope that 
the day will come when you can feel that your 
life has done as much good in the world as it 
might have done if you could have seen us all.” 

As Bessie paused, the old clock in the hall 
slowly struck twelve. She counted the strokes, 
and then said gently, — 


128 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Now, my hero, beginning with this new 
day, we will try to live bravely and well, and to 
make the very best of our lives. And when it 
is harder than you can bear, come right to 
me, and we will talk it all over together and 
see if we can’t make it easier. I don’t like 
to have you go off by yourself in this way, as 
you did to-night. Haven’t you been asleep at 
all?” 

“ I couldn’t. I heard you come to the door, 
and I tried to keep still, for fear you’d worry. 
I’m sorry I disturbed you, but I am so glad you 
came. You do make things better, somehow ! ” 

“ I am so glad,” said Bess ; “ that is what I 
am for. But now I want you to stop talking 
and go to sleep. Do you think you will ? ” 

“ I’ll try,” said the child, “ but I don’t feel 
much like it. My head aches a little.” 

Bess laid her hand on his throbbing forehead. 

“ Your head feels so warm,” she said. “ You 
lie down and don’t talk any more, and I will 
bathe it a little. Perhaps that will make you 
sleepy.” 

She turned and shook up the pillows, and the 
child lay back with a grateful sigh, as she gently 


‘‘AND WHEN THE FIGHT IS FIERCE.” 129 


rubbed and patted his face. For a time he was 
in constant nervous motion, but he gradually 
became quiet. At length she fancied he was 
asleep, and was just slipping noiselessly from 
the bed, when he asked, — 

“ May I say one thing more. Miss Bess ? ” 

“ What is it, Fred ? ” 

“ I’d like to go for a little walk to-morrow ; 
and may the boys come up again next week ? ” 
At breakfast the next morning, both Fred 
and Bess looked rather the worse for their 
vigil ; but, except for an increased gentleneSvS 
on Fred’s part, and a little more careful atten- 
tion on Bessie’s, there was nothing to show 
what had occurred, and the secret of their long 
talk remained all their own. As they went to 
their lessons, Fred said, — 

“ I had such a good dream last night.” 

“ What was it ? ” inquired Bess, as she 
opened the history they were reading. 

“It was after our talk, you know,” Fred 
answered slowly, as if trying to bring it back 
again. “I was at home once more, lying on 
the sofa crying, for everything went wrong, and 
I was all alone. All of a sudden you came 


130 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


into the room, and as you walked towards me, 
it grew lighter and lighter, till I could see you 
just as well as ever, — nothing else in the room, 
only just you. You looked exactly the way 
you did the last afternoon before I went to 
Boston. You remember how you went down 
to see me, don’t you? Well, you had on the 
same dress and hat and everything you Avore 
then, and you stood looking down at me, kind 
of laughing. And then you said ‘ Come,’ and 
put out your hand to help me up. I stood up 
and felt so much better. I kept looking at you, 
because that was all I could see, and it seemed 
so good to see you again. Then you took my 
hand and led me out into the street, and along 
ever so far, to a strange place ; and then, all at 
once, I could see again just the way I used to. 
But just as I was holding on to you, and look- 
ing at the trees and houses and people, I waked 
up, and it was only a dream.” 

“ Only a dream ! ” said Bess regretfully. 
“ How I wish it were all true ! ” 

“ But it was just like seeing you once more,” 
answered Fred, as he slowly drew his chair to 
the fire ; “ and I feel just as if I had seen you 


“AND WHEN THE FIGHT IS FIERCE.” 131 


yesterday.” Then, as he settled himself com- 
fortably, he added, with a flash of fun that re- 
minded Bess of the old Fred, — 

“Well, I s'pose if I were as well as I used to 
be, I shouldn’t be here now. That’s one good 
thing ! ” 


132 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


CHAPTER VIIL 

KING WINTER. 

If Fred had been the hero of one of the 
stories of good little boys, whose pages our 
mothers and grandmothers used to bedew with 
salt tears, from the hour of his midnight talk 
with Bess his whole character would have 
undergone a sudden and miraculous change. 
But he was only a natural boy, just starting to 
fight his own way against heavy odds, and his 
progress was slow and tiresome. Though he 
forced himself to go out with Bess, and to see 
the boys when they came to the house, he still 
had the old longing to avoid them, and the old 
quick temper would flash out at Rob now and 
then. But Bess, watching him closely, could 
see his struggle, and often rejoiced over some 
victory too slight to attract the attention of 
any one else. With a quiet word of suggestion 
or encouragement she helped the boy onward 
when he was cross and discouraged, or let fall 


KING WINTER. 


133 


some expression of approval to shoy that she 
appreciated his efforts to live well, as a hero 
should do. 

The first meeting with the boys was a trying 
one on both sides. Sam, in particular, was so 
anxious to make the most soothing remarks, 
that he well-nigh overwhelmed Fred by his 
expressions of sympathy and solicitude. But 
just as Fred felt he could endure it no longer, 
and must beat a retreat, Bert came to the 
rescue with some well-timed question that 
turned the conversation to less personal sub- 
jects. It was by no means the first time that 
Bess had been grateful to Bert for his quick 
perception of danger signals in the conversa- 
tion, and she hastily followed his lead. But 
the hour the boys spent together was rather a 
stiff one, for Fred was silent and shy, and the 
boys had not the courage to approach him, as 
they felt, more strongly than ever, the sad dif- 
ference between them. It was with a sigh of 
relief that Fred heard the door close behind 
them; and, returning to the parlor, he threw 
himself wearily into a chair, while F uzz climbed 
on his knee and licked his face. A moment 


134 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


afterwards Bessie’s hand was laid on his 
shoulder. 

“ In a brown study, Fred ? ” she asked gayly. 

“Yes — no — I don’t know,” was the some- 
what vague response. 

“ What is it now ? ” she inquired, as she bent 
over the fireplace to pile up the scattered 
embers. 

“ Nothing, only I didn’t enjoy the boys 
much,” said Fred candidly. “ And I don’t 
think they enjoyed me. Do you think we 
shall ever have any more fun together. Miss 
Bess?” 

“ Yes, indeed, Fred ! It will take a little 
while to make up for the year you have lost. 
But be patient ; the time will come, and come 
soon. Was it as bad as you expected?” 

“ I am afraid it was,” confessed Fred. “ Sam 
was the worst of all.” 

“And yet he had no idea of it,” said Bess. 
“ He meant to say something very kind, and we 
ought to find out what people really mean, be- 
fore we judge them. I don’t believe that, 
except for Rob, one of the boys would give up 
as much for your sake as Sam, in spite of his 


KING WINTER. 


135 


long words and queer grammar. But come, we 
have our book to finish before bedtime.” 

January and February had come and gone 
with but little snow, and no cold weatlier. But 
from the very first day March seemed deter- 
mined to make amends for this neglect. A 
week of cold, clear weather brought glorious 
skating, and the boys revelled in it. After a 
day or two of the sport, Rob, Ted, and Phil put 
their heads together, and, as a result of their 
planning, one fine moonlight evening the trio ap- 
peared to Bess, who was comfortably toasting 
her toes and holding Fuzz, while she read aloud 
to Fred. 

“ Cousin Bess ! ” exclaimed Rob, breaking in 
on this cosy scene, ‘‘ just drop that old book and 
come with us ! Fred doesn’t want you half as 
much as we do.” 

“ Do come,” echoed Phil persuasively. ‘‘ It 
is splendid skating, and we want you to come, 
too.” 

“ But I don’t know how to skate,” demurred 
Bess, with an affectionate glance at the fire. 

“It’s high time you did, at your age,” said 
Rob saucily. “ And it’s no use to beg off, 


186 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


ma’am, for I know you have some skates, even if 
you don’t know how to use them.” 

“Yes, we’ll teach you,” added Ted. “It’s 
fine to-night, and we want you to go like thun- 
der — oh ! ” And he had the grace to blush 
over his last word. 

“ But my skates are dull,” pleaded Bessie. 

“We’ve had them sharpened,” said Phil, 
triumphantly dangling them before her eyes. 
“ Sha’n’t she go, Fred ? ” 

Now Fred did want to hear the rest of the 
story, instead of passing a lonely evening. For 
a moment his face clouded, but a sudden 
thought came to him, that such a feeling was 
unworthy the hero he was trying to be, and he 
said bravely, — 

“ Please go. Miss Bess. I truly wish you 
would, and you can tell me how many times 
you fall down.” 

Bess had seen his struggle, and more than 
ever longed to stay with him; but the boys 
were clamorous, so she yielded, and went with 
them. 

She had told the truth when she had said 
she could not skate, for, although she had 


KING WINTER. 


137 


owned her skates for ten years, she had not put 
them on as many times. But she was naturally 
sure-footed, and, with the three boys to help 
her, she was soon able to propel herself slowly 
across the smooth sheet of ice, in spite of ocean 
sional collisions with the many skaters. 

“But what makes me turn around?” she 
asked anxiously, after she had repeatedly had 
the mortification of starting for some desired 
spot, only to turn helplessly midway on her 
course, and drift aimlessly backwards, with her 
puzzled face fixed on the starting-point. 

“It’s because you don’t strike out evenly,” 
said Teddy. “ Now watch me, and do as I 
do.” And he glided away across the pond. 

Bess tried to glide after him, but her left 
foot constantly ran away from her right, and 
she could only toddle along in a series of short 
strokes, until she once more turned her back on 
the coveted goal, and, after a brief slide, stopped 
short, awaiting further instructions. It was a 
merry evening, and before they left the ice, 
Bess had learned to appreciate the fascination 
of the sport, while she retired amidst the con- 
gratulations of her three knights, who vied 


138 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


with one another in sounding the praises of 
their apt pupil. For a few days Bess made the 
most of her new accomplishment, and spent an 
hour or two of each day on the pond, where 
she quickly learned to feel at home, and at 
least could keep her face turned towards the 
object of her hopes. It was provoking to watch 
the ease with which her friends slid past her, 
looking so independent and sure of their foot- 
ing; and Bess at first was tempted to give up 
the struggle, which she felt was making her 
ridiculous. But Rob’s protestations encouraged 
her, and on the third day she ceased to be the 
new-comer. Her successor was a tall youth 
who awkwardly put on his skates, rose un- 
steadily to his feet, balanced himself for a 
moment, and then, with a smile that said as 
plainly as words, “ Conquer or die,” struck out 
boldly, only to land in an ignominious pile at 
her very feet. From that moment she felt 
herself a veteran in the art of skating. 

It was late the next afternoon when Bess 
with one of her friends reached the pond. 
Their skates were soon on, and they struck out 
together into the merry crowd of skaters. 


KING WINTER. 


139 


Bess looked about for her cousin and his boon 
companions, who were nowhere to be seen, and 
then watched her friend, who was moving away 
alone, her swaying figure outlined against the 
ruddy sunset. Then, refusing all offers of 
assistance, she struggled up the pond, against 
the strong wind that nearly blew her back- 
ward. Half-way up the ice she paused, stood 
for a moment to catch her breath, and then, 
with the breeze helping her, lazily slid back, 
almost to the dam at the lower end of the ice. 
This performance she repeated several times, 
greatly to her own satisfaction. At length, she 
had stopped to speak to a friend, when a sound 
of mingled scraping and shouting made them 
both raise their eyes, and glance up the ice. 
A peculiar apparition was bearing down upon 
them, as they stood there in the gathering twi- 
light. At first, they could make out little but 
its outline, but as it came rushing nearer, it was 
revealed in all its splendor. Four sleds, two 
red, one yellow, and one blue, had been lashed 
together, two in front, two behind, and covered 
with a sort of platform of boards, from the 
front of which rose a complicated system of 


140 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


bean-poles, crossed and re-crossed, bearing a red 
and yellow horse-blanket, spread as a sail. 
Seated in state on the four corners of this plat- 
form, each waving a diminutive flag, sat Rob, 
Ted, Bert, and Phil, while on an inverted keg 
in the middle stood Sam, blowing on a tin horn 
with such energy that his crimson cheeks 
looked ready to pop, like an overheated kernel 
of corn. There was no way to guide or stop 
this unwieldy ice-boat, when once it was well 
under way. For a moment, Bess watched it in 
amusement, until her friend suddenly ex- 
claimed, — 

“ The dam ! They don’t think of it ! ” 

True enough ! They were rapidly approach- 
ing the edge of the ice ; beyond lay a strip of 
still, green water, before it took its final plunge 
down on the rocks thirty feet below. The two 
women looked up the pond. There was no one 
near to help, and, besides, what could any one 
do ? The boys were rushing to certain death ; 
could it be that in the twilight they did not 
see their danger? But at that moment Bess 
saw them spring up, run to their improvised 
sail and try to pull it down, as if hoping in 


KING WINTER. 


141 


that way to check their mad speed ; but it was 
too firmly lashed to its place. Must she see 
them drown? There was the one chance for 
them, and, straining her voice to the utmost, she 
shouted : “ Rob ! Phil ! Jump for your lives ! ” 
and then turned away her head, not daring to 
look. 

But the answering “ All right ” came ringing 
back to her, and, turning, she saw five prostrate 
figures on the ice, and the sleds, blanket and 
all, just sinking into the strip of dark water. 
Skating to the spot as quickly as she could, she 
found four of the heroes ruefully picking them- 
selves up: Rob with a black eye, Phil with a 
cut lip, and Sam with a bloody nose, while Ted 
was uninjured. But Bert still lay motionless, 
stunned by his fall. 

“What is it? Is he hurt? Is he killed?” 
exclaimed the frightened boys, crowding around 
their companion. 

“ No, I think he has only fainted,” said Bess, 
reassuring them as best she could. She sent 
Ted for some water, and soon had the boy on 
his feet, apparently none the worse for his 
escapade. 


142 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“Now, boys, come home,” said she, as she 
took off her skates, too much exhausted by her 
recent alarm to give the lecture the boys so 
richly deserved for their carelessness. 

With Bert at her side, she started to walk 
home, closely followed by four crestfallen lads, 
who, though speechless, telegraphed to each 
other, in dumb show, behind her back, that 
they were going to be scolded. The culprits 
presented a forlorn appearance. Rob’s bump 
was already showing various rainbow hues, 
while Sam’s nose had no less quickly developed 
the size, shape, and color of a prize radish, and 
Phil’s lip had grown decidedly puffy. As they 
reached the Carters’ gate, Bess raised her eyes 
to the window where Fred, a dark little figure 
against the brightly lighted room, was sitting to 
listen for her step. Then she turned to the 
boys. 

“Now, my boys,” she said, “I wonder if you 
know how near 5^ou came to being drowned, or 
worse. It was a crazy thing to do, that ice-boat 
of yours, and I am thankful that you only have 
some swollen eyes and noses to remember it by. 
Don’t do it again, children. You didn’t think 


KING WINTER. 


143 


this time, I know, but you must never try it 
again. Will you promise? ” 

“It was first-rate fun,” remonstrated Phil, 
the clearness of his speech rather impaired by 
his swollen lip. 

“Yes, fun in the time of it; but suppose 
that you had gone into the water, or that Bert 
had been more than stunned by his fall. Such 
fun as that would not be worth while, I am 
sure. I want you to let this be your last ice- 
boating, until you are older.” 

“Yes, I guess we’d better let it alone,” said 
Bert regretfully. “ But you just ought to try 
it once. Miss Bess, to see how fine it is. Good- 
night ! ” 

And the boys, glad to have escaped so lightly, 
were off with a shout, while Bess went in, to 
be met at the door by Fred. 

The lads kept their promise the more easily 
because a heavy fall of show, the night after 
their ice-boating, made the pond useless. But 
as winter is the boy’s carnival time, and as boy 
ingenuity is endless as far as ways to tempt 
Providence are concerned, the quintette soon 
devised a new method of imperilling their lives. 


144 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


For two days Phil was shut up, as a result of 
his bump, and Rob only ventured as far as his 
cousin’s, where he inwardly rejoiced that Fred 
could not see the yellowish purple bunch that 
closed his eye for the time being. By the fol- 
lowing Saturday, however, the boys were ready 
for fresh sport, and betook themselves to Bert’s 
yard, where they found that their mates had 
been wasting no time. At the back of the 
grounds, Bert and Sam were putting the 
finishing touches to an inclined plane of 
boards, while Ted was covering it with a thin 
layer of snow, and beating it to a hard, smooth 
sheet. 

“ Hullo, black-eye ! ” shouted Bert, as he 
caught sight of his guests. “ Come on ; here's 
some fun for you.” 

“ What’s that for ? ” asked Phil, curiously 
eying the crazy structure. 

“That? Don’t you know?” replied Ted, 
with a disdainful emphasis on the last word. 

“ It’s a toboggan chute,” explained Bert. 
“ We’re going to cover it with snow, and slide 
down on it. By the way, there are you fellows’ 
sleds.” 


KING WINTER. 


145 


“Where did they come from? I thought 
they went under,” said Rob. 

“ Sam went up the next morning and found 
them floating close to the dam,” answered Ted. 
“ He cut a long pole and hauled them in. But 
you kids go to work and help me. We want to 
get this done, so we can have some fun before a 
thaw.” 

After two hours of hard work, Phil ventured 
to suggest that it would be easier to go to some 
of the ready-made hills for their coasting, but 
his comrades scorned the suggestion and 
promptly suppressed him. 

By noon the slide was ready, and the boys 
separated for a hurried dinner, agreeing to be 
back as soon as possible. Soon afterwards they 
reappeared, Ted peeling an orange, and Phil 
with a pocketful of crackers, while Bert came 
out with a vast wedge of pie in his hand. 
With their sleds, they scrambled up the incline, 
and were soon on their way down it again. It 
was not in all respects a success. The frame- 
work, insecurely supported, tottered beneath 
them, and the boards were not carefully joined, 
causing occasional bumps in the way. But the 


146 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


charm of novelty covered a multitude of sins, 
and for an hour the boys followed one another 
down the slope and up again, with hardly a 
pause. 

“Say, Phil,” asked Ted, as if suddenly im- 
pressed with a new idea, “ what made you take 
the snow from the foot of the slide to cover it 
with ? That’s what ails it, and makes our sleds 
stick so.” 

“ That’s so,” responded Phil, diving into his 
overcoat pocket for another cracker. “ I didn’t 
think about that, and it was easier to get the 
snow here. I’ll shovel some on that place.” 

“ I’ll tell you what,” suggested Bert. “ I’m 
sick of the sleds. There’s a pile of boards in 
the bai’n. Let’s each take one, and go down on 
that.” 

There was a race to the barn, a quick pulling 
over of the pile, and the bo3^s were back at the 
top of the chute again, each one armed with his 
bit of board. Rob went down first, and suc- 
ceeded in managing his improvised sled so that 
he had the full benefit of the slide; but Sam, 
who followed him, was so heavy and came with 
such force that, at the foot of the incline, the 


KING WINTER. 


147 


boy and his board parted company. The latter 
stuck fast in the soft snow and mud, and the 
boy went tumbling and rolling away, amidst 
the shouts of his friends. The fun waxed fast 
and furious. Mishaps were many, and Sam 
was particularly luckless. Sometimes his board 
would escape from his clutches, and go merrily 
bobbing down the slope away from him, or else 
it would run off from the side, and land him in 
the snow beneath, or, again, some other boy on 
his sled would come whizzing up behind him, 
and, knocking his feet out from under him, 
would carry him along on top of the pile, 
struggling and laughing. 

“ It’s curious,” he remarked at length, 
“there don’t seem to be no reason why my 
board should act so queer. If there’s goin’ to be 
anything left of me, I reckon I’d better quit.” 

“I say, Bert,” suggested Ted, “let’s all go 
down in a crowd. There’s a short ladder over 
there that would be just dandy. Would your 
father be willing we should try it just once ? ” 

“I guess so,” replied Bert. “I don’t suppose 
we’d hurt it any, and it would just about hold 
us five. That’s as much fun as ice-boating.” 


148 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ I don’t know,” said Sam, discreetly holding 
back. “ I am afraid that won’t work. I don’t 
want to get my neck l^roke.” 

“ Sam’s getting scared,” said Ted, as he and 
Phil clambered up with the ladder. 

“No, I ain’t!” said Sam warmly, “but I 
hain’t got an inch of skin now that isn't black 
and blue.” 

“ This will have to be our last grand slide,” 
said Bert, as they took their places. “ The 
snow is going fast.” 

The five lads settled themselves on their 
unique toboggan, and at the word Ted gave 
the starting push. Away they went, rushing 
down the slope with such force that the for- 
ward end of the ladder plunged into the mud 
at the foot, and the rear flew up and described 
a half-circle in the air, scattering its riders in 
all directions. Two shouts broke on the air, 
one of woe as they took their flight, the other 
and longer one of mirths as each surveyed his 
fallen companions. Phil was particularly 
funny, for a train of crackers scattered from his 
pockets marked the course of his flight. 

“ It was lots of fun,” Rob confided to Bess 


KING WINTER. 


149 


that night. “We just flew all ways at once. 
But it’s thawing so fast that we can’t try it 
again soon.” 

And, in her secret thoughts, Bess was thank- 
ful that it was so. 

Then came a week when it seemed as if the 
winter were a thing of the past. The snow 
melted quickly, and the ground settled so 
thoroughly that, when Saturday came round 
again, and it dawned warm and bright, Rob 
came in and invited Bess to play tennis with 
him. So through the whole March afternoon 
they played in the sunshine, while Fred, glad to 
be out once more, either wandered slowly up and 
down, or lounged on the lawn seat near them. 

“ I’ll tell you what, cousin Bess,” said Rob, 
as he took down the net, “ I’ll play an hour 
Monday noon, if you want to.” 

“Let me see,” said Bess. “I’ve promised to 
go to walk with Fred in the afternoon, but I 
think I can play. Will you have time before 
school?” 

“ I’ll hurry and eat my dinner, and we can 
play a little, anyway. Come on, Fred,” and 
they went into the house. 


150 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


But the next morning was cold and raw, as 
if to make up for the day before, and by after^ 
noon a few flakes of snow were falling lazily 
and melting as they fell. When Bess with her 
little cousin came home from church, she sug- 
gested that their game could hardly be played 
the next noon; but Rob laughed at the idea, 
and left, her with many assurances that the 
next day would see him on the spot, racket in 
hand. 

But on Monday morning Bess woke up to 
find a real old-fashioned snowstorm raging out- 
side. Already the drifts lay high and white, 
and the fierce gusts of wind swept the snow 
this way and that, and shook the house until 
each window and door rattled in its casing. 
Mr. Carter made his usual early start to his 
business, and Bess and Fred adjourned to the 
library, where they were glad to curl up over 
the register, for the wind seemed to force its 
way even through the walls. But the lessons 
went hard that morning. The roaring of the 
storm made Fred unusually nervous, and Bess 
caught his mood, as she glanced out occasionally 
to see the air filled with the hurrying snow- 


KING WINTER. 


151 


flakes, and watched the drift against the win- 
dow slowly mount up until it half shut out the 
outer world, while the wind blew more and more 
furiously. At length she put down her book. 

“ Fred^” said she, “this isn’t doing either of 
us any good to-day. Suppose we leave it, and 
go to see what mother is doing ? ” 

“ Is it still snowing ? ” asked the boy. 

“ Snowing I I should think it was ; faster 
than ever. And such a large drift by the win- 
dow ! Come over here, and I’ll show you how 
high it is.” And she laid Fred’s hand on the 
window, at the top line of the drift. 

“It must be awfully deep. Wish I could 
see it, or else not hear it quite so much. I’m 
sick of such a racket.” And Fred drew a long, 
tired breath, as he dropped back into his chair. 

“ You stay here and toast y‘ourself, and I will 
go out and see how things are.” 

Bess found her mother looking anxious 
enough over the storm. It was eleven o’clock, 
and no meat-man, no grocer’s boy, and no milk. 
The fires needed constant attention, and Bridget, 
absorbed in her washing, was unwilling to be 
called on for help. 


152 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“Never mind, mother,” said Bess consolingly. 
“ I’m a splendid fireman, and I will see to the 
furnace to-day. And don’t worry about the 
dinner. We’ll manage without meat and milk. 
Let’s see, we have some codfish, I know, and 
we will make coffee by the gallon, if necessary. 
I pity people who have no water in their 
houses. But I am afraid father will have a 
severe time getting home. The snow must be 
very deep.” 

She opened the door to look out, but was 
greeted by a small avalanche of snow that came 
tumbling in upon her. 

“Two feet on a level, I should think,” she 
announced, with an apparent unconsciousness 
of the wrathful countenance of Bridget, who 
stalked to the broom, and swept out the 
snow. 

“Where is Fred? ” asked Mrs. Carter. 

“ In the library. He is so nervous with the 
storm that I found he was getting no good 
from the lessons, so I stopped reading.” 

“ It is too bad to leave him alone,” said her 
mother. “ You’d better go back to him.” 

“Not a bit of it,” said Bess gayly. “You 


KING WINTER. 


153 


go stay with him, and Bridget and I will get 
you up a codfish lunch fit for a king.” 

The day slowly wore on, and the storm still 
raged. 

“ It will go down at night,” Mrs. Carter had 
said, but as it grew dark the snow and wind 
were fiercer than ever ; and it was evident that 
Mr. Carter could not get home that night. At 
dinner-time it was discovered that the dining- 
room on the north side of the house must be 
abandoned, for it was not only very cold, but the 
snow had forced its way under the door, and a 
small drift lay across the floor, where it melted 
and trickled lazily about the room. 

By evening Bess felt that she had her hands 
full, between her duties as stoker, consoling 
Bridget, who, with the superstition of her race, 
declared this to be the forerunner of the day 
of judgment, cheering up her anxious mother, 
and quieting Fred’s fears. The boy tried to be 
brave, but, in his inability to see the storm, 
he pictured it as far worse than it really was, 
and was thoroughly frightened and miserable. 
Looking up from her magazine, Bess watched 
him as he moved restlessly from window to 


154 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


window, stopping at each and resting his head 
against the glass, as if trying to see out into 
the night. Then she rose and joined him, as he 
dejectedly turned away. As usual, his face 
brightened when he felt her hand on his shoul- 
der; and, arm in arm, they walked up and 
down the long room, while Bess talked busily, 
hoping to tire him out until he should be ready 
to sleep. But it was late before he could be 
persuaded to go to bed, and, although Bess 
went to his room often during the night, she 
found him always awake and tossing restlessly, 
though he made no complaint. The morning 
found them all rather exhausted, and the boy 
seemed worn out with his long wakefulness. It 
still snowed fast, but the wind had died down 
a little. After a breakfast of such materials 
as they chanced to have on hand, Bess tucked 
Fred up on the sofa, hoping he might drop to 
sleep, and retired to the kitchen, to take an 
account of stock. 

“Only two potatoes left, Bridget! How 
did we get so nearly out? And just this piece 
of cold steak and some codfish? Well, we 
must make the best of it all. Thej^ say fish is 
good for our brains.” 


KING WINTER. 


155 


“ Sure,” remarked Bridget sagely, “ we’d 
better be ’atin’ a lot of it, thin, for it needs all 
the brains we can get to know how to get three 
meals a day, wid nothin’ to make ’em of. And 
all the clo’es layin’ wet in the tubs, miss ! 
What in the world will we do wid ’em ? ” 

The second day was longer than the first. 
Mr. Carter, they knew, was safe in his office, 
while a restaurant on the ground floor of the 
building would supply him with food ; but they 
trembled to think of the suffering among the 
poor about them, suffering that they were 
powerless to relieve. The time dragged slowly 
along. Late in the day the wind ceased, and 
after their dinner Fred threw himself on the 
sofa, and at once dropped to sleep from sheer 
exhaustion. Bess covered him gently, and then 
followed her mother into the parlor, where she 
dropped into a chair. 

“At last,” she whispered, with a backward 
glance at the brown head on the pillow, “ I can 
draw a long breath. That child hasn’t slept a 
moment since yesterday morning. It is strange 
how nervous he has been.” 

“ It has been a fearful storm for all of us,” 


156 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


Mrs. Carter replied, “and it has been even 
worse for him. He has been so brave and un- 
complaining that I suppose we have no idea 
what he has suffered. And I confess that I 
didn’t sleep much more than you and he last 
night. I wish I knew that no poor people 
were starving to death or freezing.” 

“ I dread to hear the reports from the storm,” 
said Bess soberly. “We have come out quite 
well. But you go to bed and try to have a 
little sleep. I’ll &tay here and wait for Fred to 
wake up. I hate to disturb him.” 

And tired as she was, drowsy and longing 
for rest, she sat by the fire until the clock 
struck one and the lamp burned low, rather 
than awaken the sleeping child. At length 
she went out to look at him, and sat down on 
the edge of the sofa, thinking to waken him; 
but as she saw his tired little face and quiet, 
even breathing, she waited and still kept her 
uncomfortable seat, till her cramped position 
forced her to move. The boy stirred as she 
touched his hand. 

“ What time is it ? Have I been asleep ? ” 
he inquired, stretching himself. 


KING WINTER. 


157 


‘‘You certainly have. It is nearly two in the 
morning,” answered Bess, as he rose. 

“ Oh, Miss Bess ! And you sat here with 
me ? How could you ? What a pig I am ! ” 
said the boy remorsefully. Then, putting his 
hands on her shoulders as she still sat there, too 
weary to move : “ How awfully good you are to 
me ! ” he said. “ I wish I could live with you 
always.” 

And Bess thought no more of her weariness, 
as they went up the stairs together. 

The next morning, Wednesday, found the 
snow still falling, but the clouds looked broken, 
and by noon some stray sunbeams were showing 
themselves here and there. As the Carters sat 
at their late lunch, their fourth consecutive 
meal of codfish, a scramble and clatter were 
heard at the front door, and the next moment 
Rob came tumbling in, with his pockets filled 
with bundles of all shapes and sizes. 

“ Hullo ! ” he shouted. “Where are you all? 
Want some grub?” 

“ Where did you come from, and how in the 
world did you get here ? ” asked his aunt. 

“ On my feet, aunty. I have taken to snow- 


158 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


shoeing ; want to see my runners ? ” And, with 
great pride, Rob led them to the door, and 
exhibited a pair of long, narrow boards, slightly 
turned up at one end, and furnished midway 
with a strap of heavy leather to support the 
toe. 

“ The genuine Norwegian article,” he ex- 
plained. “ That man from out West, that civil 
engineer, you know, says they use them for 
their camping parties in the blizzards. He let 
me see his, so I made these. It’s lots of fun, 
see ? ” and he went striding away over the four 
feet of snow as if it were covered with an icy 
crust. Then he came back, took oil his coat, 
and prepared to tell his adventures. 

“ I thought you might be getting hungry,” 
he said, “ so I stopped at the market on my 
way up, and took Avhat I could get. Hope you 
aren’t particular.” 

“ Not a bit,” declared Bess. “We are starved 
until we will eat anything.” 

“All the better,” said Rob. “Here, Fred, 
catch hold of these.” And he piled into his 
arms two bologna sausages, a can of potted 
chicken, a slice of round steak, a can of con- 


KING WINTER. 


159 


densed milk, two pounds of zoological crackers, 
a sheet of baker’s gingerbread, and a bag of 
raisins. 

“ Ob, Rob ! Rob ! ” said Bess, laughing until 
she cried, as she saw the motley collection, so 
evidently selected by the boy himself. “ Your 
warning was needed. We surely ought not to 
be particular.” 

Rob laughed, but his color came and he looked 
rather annoyed, so Bess hastened to add, — 

“ But it was so good of you to think of us, 
for we are dreadfully tired of codfish, and this 
will be a welcome relief. And now tell us how 
you all are, and what the news is — if you 
know any.” 

“Everybody is snowed up,” answered Rob, 
as he helped Fred to lay down his pile of pro- 
visions. “No trains, no street-cars. We went 
to school Monday morning, but they sent us 
home about ten, and I didn’t go out again till 
last night. Some men in front of our house 
Avere trying to plough a path, and I asked them 
if I mightn’t borrow their horse to ride down 
after some milk. They said I might, so I 
hopped on and started. He went very well till 


IGO 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


I was down in front of the church, but there 
he stopped, so I just hit him with my heels to 
make him go. He just swung up his hind feet 
and pitched me off, head first, into a tremendous 
drift. I went in all over, and all I could do 
was to kick. A man saw me go, and took hold 
of my feet to pull me out; but off came my 
rubber boots, and over he went backwards, with 
one in each hand. I guess he was scared, and 
thought he had pulled me in two. But pretty 
soon I felt him grip my feet again, and that 
time he got me out. The horse had walked 
off, back to his master, and I had a sweet time 
■getting home. This morning I saw that man 
go by the house on his shoes, and I called to 
him and asked him to let me see what they 
were like. He was awfully nice, and told me 
just how to make them, and I’m going to make 
you a pair, cousin Bess. It’s lots of fun to 
walk on them, only when you turn round you 
get them crossed, they are so long, and first 
thing you know you’re standing on your own 
heel. But what about that game of tennis ? ” 


THE I. I.’S. 


161 


CHAPTER IX. 

THE I. I.’S. 

“Come, Fuzzy, come!” said Bess, opening 
the front door an inch, and speaking in a tone 
of gentle persuasion. 

But Fuzz only gazed fixedly at some distant 
point of the landscape, and refused to move. 

“Come, good little Fuzz; come right in!” 
And Bess tried to express the idea that some 
pleasing secret lay hidden behind the door that 
she held open a crack. Slowly the dog turned 
the white of one eye towards his mistress ; but 
otherwise he was deaf to her voice. Becoming 
impatient, she went out on the step. 

. “ Come right here. Fuzz ! ” she said, very 
decidedly. 

The little animal looked at her for a moment, 
wagged his brief tail as if to say, “ Excuse me,” 
and then darted to the gate, where he stood 
barking furiously, occasionally turning his head 


162 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


to see if his mistress were still waiting for him. 
She stepped back into the house and shut the 
door, with an elaborate care that he should 
notice the fact. Then she applied her eye to 
one of the glass panes. The dog trotted to the 
steps, looked about him, and, seeing that the 
coast was clear, leisurely came up them and lay 
down on the mat. 

“ Now I have him ! ” thought Bess exult- 
ingly, and, suddenly opening the door, she 
made a quick snatch at the spot where the dog 
had been, — had been, for at the first click of 
the latch he was several yards away, barking 
defiance at some imaginary foe. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” sighed Bess, adjusting the folds 
of her pretty spring suit. “ How could Bridget 
be so careless as to let that dog out when I 
told her not to?” And again she peered out 
through the glass, only to see the dog peace- 
fully lying on the lower step, with his little 
black nose laid up on the one above it. 

“ Can’t you get him to come to you with a 
piece of bread?” queried Fred’s voice from the 
next room. ‘‘ I’ll go ask Bridget for a piece.” 

He returned in a moment and offered Bess a 


THE I. I.’S. 


163 


thick slice of bread, and then passed his hand 
approvingly down over her gown. 

“ How fine you are ! ” he said. “ It is a 
shame for Fuzz to act so.” 

“He always does when I want to go away, 
so I usually shut him into the house. To-day 
he saw me putting on my hat and suspected a 
departure, and in some way ran out past 
Bridget. I am sorry, for I ought to call on 
Mrs. Walsh.” 

As she opened the door and stepped out into 
the May sunshine, Fred stood leaning in the 
doorway, waiting to know if his plan were 
successful. Fuzz sat on the grass ten feet 
away, watching their manoeuvres with a look of 
calm, unbiassed criticism. 

“ Come, Fuzz, come get some bread,” said Bess 
caressingly, as she broke off a bit and tossed 
it to the dog. He moved lazily towards it, ate it 
as if he were conferring a favor upon her, then 
came a step or two nearer to get the next one, 
and the next, artfully aimed by Bess, in order 
to bring him by degrees to her feet. But Fuzz 
,was wary, and had no mind to forego either the 
present feast or the prospective walk. By 


1G4 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


watching his chance, he would contrive to run 
up to Bessie’s very toes, snatch the morsel, and 
then dodge away again, before she could touch 
so much as one of his curls. In this way, he 
possessed himself of the entire slice of bread, 
and then returned to his former seat, leaving 
Bess none the better for her efforts. 

•‘Won’t he come?” asked Fred sympatheti- 
cally, though with a strong desire to laugh. 

“ He hasn’t the remotest idea of such a 
thing,” replied Bess disconsolately, as she 
looked at her watch. 

Mrs. Carter joined them on the steps. 

“Fuzz, come here ! Come to grandma !” she 
called authoritatively. 

But Fuzz withdrew to the middle of the 
street, and contemplated a distant carriage. 

“ I’ll tell you, Bess, what you can do. We 
will all go in, and then, in a few minutes, you 
can go out the back way, and through to the 
other street.” 

“ A brilliant idea, mother. Come, Fred.” 
And she led the way into the house, and shut 
the door with an emphasis to attract the dog’s 
attention. 


THE I. I.’S. 


165 


They waited until he returned to the step, 
and then, with a stealthy tread, Bess retired 
through the kitchen and was out of the house 
grounds when a small gray body rushed madly 
past her, and then returned to caper about her, 
leaving an occasional dusty foot-mark on her 
new gown. 

“ Bad Fuzz ! ” she scolded. “ Fuzz must go 
right back!” But Fuzz would neither go of 
himself, nor let her pick him up to carry him. 
So she walked back to the house, saying to 
herself, — 

“Well, I don’t mind my call, but I do hate to 
be late at Rob’s, when I’ve constantly tried to 
impress on those boys that they must be prompt 
at engagements. However, ‘ the best laid plans 
of mice and men ’ must be changed to suit the 
will of a small imp of a puppy.” 

As she entered the house. Fuzz, with a skill 
that would do credit to a civil engineer, at the 
very least, took up his position at such a van- 
tage point that he commanded an unobstructed 
view of both modes of exit, and sat watching 
them with an unblinking steadiness. Bess 
waited for a long quarter of an hour, hoping 


166 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


that the dog would give up the idea and signify 
his desire to come in. But no imperative bark 
was heard. On the contrary, Fuzz appeared to 
be abundantly satisfied with his position. Then 
Fred went out and sat down on the steps, 
inviting the dog to join him. But he pi-oved 
less attractive than usual, and neither his coax- 
ing nor Mrs. Carter’s commands could move the 
delinquent from his post of observation. Then 
Bridget, now truly penitent for the careless- 
ness that was causing “ Miss Bess ” so much 
delay, promenaded up and down before him, 
trailing behind her a perfectly bare beef-bone, 
tied to a string. Fuzz eyed her with seeming 
indifference, while she made three or four turns, 
then he darted forward, seized the bone, pulled 
till he broke the string, and then triumphantly 
walked off to a safe distance, where he lay 
down and fell to gnawing his bone. Annoyed 
and impatient as she was, Bess laughed out- 
right, as she saw the quick act ; and Bridget, in 
her turn, gave up. 

Another period of waiting, and then Fred had 
a fresh proposal. 

“ See here, Miss Bess, if Fuzz wants a walk, 


THE 1. L’S. 


16T 


I will give him one. I’ll put on my hat and 
walk out beyond the tennis court, and he will 
come too. Then you can go.” 

‘‘Could you, Fred? I am so anxious to go, 
only I hate to send you off alone,” said Bess 
doubtfully, for as yet Fred’s out-of-door excur- 
sions had mainly been made with her or Rob as 
escort. 

“Yes, I’ll be all right,” said the boy, and 
then added wistfully, “ How long shall you be 
gone ? ” 

“ No longer than I can help, my dear. Now 
be very careful of yourself.” And she gave 
him his hat and the light, strong cane he 
depended on when alone. 

She watched him as he moved slowly off 
across the broad lawn, with Fuzz frisking 
along by his side, and occasionally jumping 
against him with such unexpected force that it 
made him totter. 

“Bless the child!” she thought. “He grows 
unselfish and considerate every day ; and how 
well and happy he seems. I hope he will 
enjoy this new plan.” 

And she started on her errand, with one 


168 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


backward glance at the lad, as he sat down for 
a moment on one of the seats scattered about 
the lawn, and turned his face to the soft, clear 
air. Above his head the trees were in the 
beauty of their first tiny leaves, so light and 
delicate in their unfolding that they looked like 
a cloud of butterflies lighted on every little 
twig and stem. And the birds chirped and 
twittered in all the gladness of the sunshine, 
rejoicing in the new life about them. The in- 
fluence of the spring was over them all, and 
vaguely, in his boy fashion, Fred felt it too. 
For a moment he went back to a year or two 
ago, and longed for the old free, happy days ; 
but as he remembered the lonely, dull hours he 
had spent between the times of his return from 
Boston and his coming to live at the Carters’, 
his mood brightened again, and he patted the 
now docile Fuzz, saying cheerfully, — 

“ It isn’t so bad after all, is it. Fuzz ?” 

And the dog presented his little paw, as if 
to shake hands, in token of their perfect 
agreement. 

In the meantime Bess had betaken herself to 
her cousin’s, where she was greeted by five 


THE 1. L’S. 


169 


eager, curious lads, who, perched on the front 
fence, were awaiting her coming with loud 
denunciations of her tardiness. 

“ I couldn’t help it, boys. Fuzz wouldn’t let 
me come any earlier.” And, to the merriment 
of the lads, Bess recounted her experiences of 
the afternoon, and then asked: “Is aunt Bess 
at home, Rob?” 

“No; but she said tell you to go right in and 
make yourself at home. Do hurry up, for 
we’re awfully curious and can’t stand it another 
minute.” And Rob led the way to their pleas- 
ant sitting-room. 

“ Doesn’t Rob know what’s up ? ” asked Phil, 
as Bess seated herself deliberately, and the 
boys gathered around her. 

“Not a blessed thing,” said Bess, disregard- 
ing her cousin’s winks begging her to keep 
silence ; “ only that I told him to have you 
meet me here this afternoon.” 

“ Oh ho, young lad ! ” exclaimed Ted, giv- 
ing his host a sounding thump on the back, 
“ you’re a fraud. Here you’ve been pretending 
all day you knew what was going on, and you 
are as much in the dark now as any of us.” 


170 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“What is it, Miss Bess?” inquired Phil, 
swinging himself impatiently back and forth in 
his rocking-chair, as he sat astride of it, with 
an ankle clasped in either hand. “It’s sure to 
be fun, if you start it.” 

“ Don’t get your expectations too high, Phil,” 
said Bess. “ It is only just this. If you boys 
have time enough to spare for it, how would 
you like to spend one evening a week with 
me?” 

“Club?” suggested Rob, who had often 
begged for something of this kind. 

“ Yes, club ; if you choose to call it so.” 
And there was an enthusiastic burst of applause 
from the boys, who took a true masculine 
delight in anything rejoicing in the name of 
club. When quiet was restored, Bess went on 
quite seriously : — 

“ Now, my boys, I don’t want you to be self- 
ish in starting this club. It is for us all to 
enjoy together, and I want you to help me 
make it a great success ; but most of all it is 
for Fred. He tries so hard not to be shy with 
you, but it is hard for him when he doesn’t see 
you but once in a long time. He needs boys 


THE I. L’S. 


171 


and boy fun now, more than an5dhing else, and 
he is staying witli me so much that there is 
danger of his growing girlish and — and — 
what is it you call it ? — a mollycoddle.” 

“Not much danger of that when you are 
round,” said Sam, with a smile to point his 
intended compliment. 

Bess took it as such, and beamed on him in 
return, before she continued, — 

“Well, as I say, he needs you all to stir him 
up and give him a taste of the old fun. Now, 
it depends on you whether this fun will do him 
good, or only make him feel farther away 
from, you than ever. Can you think what I 
mean ? ” 

“Yes, I think I know. Miss Bessie,” said 
Bert, who was leaning back in the depths of 
his chair, his knees crossed and his hands 
loosely clasped in front of him, while his eyes 
were intently fixed on Bessie’s face. “You 
mean, if we stir him up in ways he can enjoy, 
or whether we tease him and do things he can’t 
have the fun of with us.” 

“ Who’d be mean enough to tease Fred 
Allen, anyhow ? ” asked Sam belligerently. 


172 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“Nobody; so keep cool and let Miss Bess go 
on,” said Teddy patronizingly. 

“ Bert has my idea. How many of you will 
help to carry it out ? ” and Bess looked around 
at the eager young faces, beaming with good- 
will to their absent friend. 

“ I ! I ! ” shouted the chorus of five ; and then 
Rob asked, — 

“What kind of a club are you going to 
have?” 

“ How do you like this plan ? Suppose you 
come up every Saturday evening early, say by 
seven, and stay two hours. At nine I shall 
send you off home, and to bed, for I don’t 
approve of late hours for children.” 

“ Children ! Oh, cracky ! ” groaned Ted, in 
parenthesis. 

“ Yes, children,” repeated Bess, with a mali- 
cious pleasure in the word. “ What else are 
you, I should like to know? But so much for 
times and seasons. And now for the way we 
are to spend our time. Beginning with myself, 
and working down by ages, I am going to let 
you each select some good subject for an even- 
ing, and then we will all bring in what informa- 


THE I. I.’S. 


173 


tion we can about it, and talk it over together. 
Y on can give out your subjects the week before, 
so we can prepare them, you know. I only 
make one condition, that you submit your sub- 
jects to me, first of all. Then we shall end 
with some games. How does the idea strike 
you?” 

“ Firsf^rate ” and “ dandy,” exclaimed Phil 
and Ted in unison ; and Sam added, — 

“ Have you told Fred? ” 

“ Not yet, for I wanted first to talk it over 
with you, and see if I could depend on you to 
make it a success. It rests with you to decide, 
and if you go into it in the right way, each 
trying to help on the general good time, we 
shall have some very pleasant evenings, I am 
sure.” 

“But I don’t see why we need study for it,” 
sighed Phil. 

“For two or three reasons, you lazy boy,” 
answered Bess. “If we spent our evenings 
just playing games, we should soon be heartily 
tired of them and of each other. But a little 
work — I don’t mean it to be hard work — will 
give a variety, so we shall like them both 


174 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


better. And then it is high time you boys 
were getting some new ideas beyond your daily 
doses of arithmetic and geography. You can 
take any subject you wish, from the moon to 
potato bugs, or Napoleon Bonaparte, provided 
you take one about which we can really learn 
something. We shall work an hour, and play 
an hour, and enjoy each better for having the 
other.” And Bess paused amid a hum of admira- 
tion from her followers. 

“What shall we call the club?” asked Rob. 

“ Genuine Grubbers,” said Phil, in whose 
mind the thought of study was still rankling. 

“ The Brotherhood of Frederick the Great,” 
was Bert’s pertinent suggestion. 

“Queen Bess and her Jolly Lads would be 
good,” remarked Teddy. “ Q. B. J. L. for 
short, you know, and none of the other fellows 
would know what it meant.” 

“ It strikes me,” Sam interposed, “ we’d 
ought to let Fred have something to say about 
it.” 

“ I agree with you, Sam,” rejoined Bess. 
“ Come home with me now, all of you, and we 
will plan for the name, first subject, and so on. 


THE I. I.’S. 


175 


and then on Saturday night we can have our 
first meeting.” 

And so Saturday evening found the house 
brightly lighted, and Fred in his best suit, with 
a white carnation in his buttonhole, while Bess 
arranged Fuzz with his basket, ball, and rag 
doll in a comfortable comer of the kitchen, to 
keep Bridget company, and persuaded the 
Dominie to retire to the dining-room. 

Punctually at the moment came the bo3"s, 
each one with a proud consciousness of being 
dressed up for the occasion, although Phil’s 
front lock of hair would stand rampant, and 
Ted’s shoes bore traces of his having splashed 
through some wayside puddle. After a few 
moments of chatter, Bess stepped to the table 
and rapped on it with mock solemnity. 

“ The members of the Club of Inquisitive 
Investigators will please come to order. I will 
call the roll of officers and members. President, 
Miss Elizabeth Carter. Well, I’m here. Vice- 
President, Master Frederic Allen.” 

Present,” remarked Fred from the corner of 
the sofa, where he was sitting with Rob and 
Bert. 


176 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Treasurer, Master Edward Preston.” 

“ Yes’m, I’m here,” responded Ted with a 
giggle, “but I don’t see what there is to 
treasure.” 

“ Secretary, Master Robert Atkinson,” con- 
tinued Bess, regardless of the interruption. 

“Here! What am I to do about it?” 
inquired Rob meekly. 

“ Chairman of Entertainment Committee, 
Master Philip Cameron.” 

“ Trust me for coming,” answered Phil, while 
Rob whispered, — 

“ That means you are chief clown.” 

“ Beadle-in-chief and Disciplinarian, Master 
Samuel Boeminghausen.” 

“ Yes, ma’am ! ” said Sam, and then fulfilled 
his official duties by frowning on Ted, who, 
mindful of his “ Pickwick,” murmured, — 

“ ‘ Samivel, my son, bevare of vidders.’ ” 

“ Grand Referee, Critic, and Curator of En- 
cyclopaedia and Dictionary, Master Herbert 
Walsh,” concluded Bess, and Bert’s response 
was lost amid the shouts of the boys, to whom 
these offices were unexpected honors. 

“ Now,” said Bess, in more natural tones, as 


THE I. L’S. 


177 


she seated herself, “ we have just members 
enough for the offices, and just offices enough 
for the members, so I don’t see how the I. I.’s 
can increase. To-night we were to talk about 
coal, and I will ask Phil to begin by telling us 
what he knows on the subject.” 

“ Oh, dear ! ” groaned Phil, “ that won’t be 
much. Let’s see. There are different kinds of 
coal, the hard or anthracite, and the soft or 
bit— bit— ” 

“ Bituminous ? ” suggested Bert. 

“ Oh, yes ! Bituminous. The bit-uminous 
has more oil in it, and is smokier. So people 
that live in cities where it is burned get black 
all over themselves when they go out on the 
street.” 

“Yes,” interposed Sam. “When my father 
took me to Chicago with him, there was one 
day that it was so thick in the air you couldn’t 
see any distance at all, and when I went back 
to the hotel to dinner, my nose was all covered 
with black streaks.” 

“ I know how that is,” said Bess. “ But go 
on, Phil.” 

“We burn the hard coal here. Then they 


178 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


divide it up by the size it is broken into, and 
call it pea-coal and nut-coal, and so on. I guess 
that’s all I know, Miss Bess.” 

“Very good, Phil. Bert, can you tell us 
something more ? ” 

“ Not very much. Phil’s told a good share 
of what I had found out. I think I know where 
some of the best coal-beds are, though.” 

Sam and Ted between them added a descrip- 
tion of coal mining; Fred gave, as his share, a 
vivid account of the primeval forests, and the 
way the coal-beds were formed ; while Rob con- 
tributed a few words about the fossils met with 
in the coal. Bess made a running commentary 
on the whole, and ended with a short account 
of the more common kindred substances : 
petroleum, illuminating gas, and the diamond. 
Then she looked at her watch. 

“ Half-past eight. Only half an hour for 
our games, boys.” 

“ it really so late ? ” asked Ted incredu- 
lously. “ This has been immense. What are 
we going to take next ? ” 

“Well, Sam, that is for you to say.” And 
Bess turned to the boy who was lounging in 


THE 1. L’S. 


179 


his chair, with one foot stretched in front of him, 
the other toe hooked around the leg of his chair. 

“ George Washington,” he replied promptly, 
with a modest pride in the wisdom and novelty 
of his choice. 

“You all hear it?” asked President Bess. 
“ Rob, as secretary, I want you to keep a list of 
the subjects and their dates. Then, six months 
from now, we will have an evening when each 
one of you may take some one of these subjects 
and write all you have learned about it; and 
we will have these essays read before a small 
and select audience. That will be about the 
last of October. And one thing more I have 
to say before our games. I want my boys to 
be careful about their positions, to sit up 
straight like gentlemen, and not curl up like a 
set of small caterpillars.” 

The sudden effect of this last remark was 
comical to behold. Feet were firmly planted, 
backs straightened, shoulders squared, and coats 
pulled into place ; while Teddy vainly tried to 
conceal a yawning chasm in the knee of his 
stocking, which had mysteriously appeared 
since his arrival. 


180 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


Promptly as the clock struck nine, Bess sent 
her guests away, but not before Ted, from the 
front steps, led off in a rousing : “ Rah ! Rah ! 
Rah! for the Inquisitive Investigators.” They 
then departed, chanting at the top of their 
lungs, as an appropriate serenade : — 

“ The owl and the pussy-cat went to sea, 

In a beautiful pea-gi’een boat. 

They took some honey and plenty of money. 
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.” 


ROB AND FRED ENTERTAIN CALLERS. 181 


CHAPTER X. 

ROB AND FRED ENTERTAIN CALLERS. 

“ I SAY, cousin Bess,” said Rob, coming into 
the library one evening, “why weren’t you at 
church last night ? ” 

“Father and mother went to Boston Satur- 
day afternoon, to stay till Wednesday, and it 
was going to be rather dismal for Fred to stay 
alone here, so w^e spent the evening reading,” 
answered Bess, moving to let Rob perch him- 
self on the arm of her great easy-chair. 

“ I tried to make her go, but she just 
wouldn’t,” remarked Fred, in a remorseful 
parenthesis. 

“Well, you’d better have been there, both of 
you,” responded Rob, as he slyly drew a long 
shell pin from his cousin’s hair, and tucked it 
into his side pocket. “ Do you remember that 
friend of Mr. Washburn that sang here one 
night in January, that New York tenor? He 
was here again last night, and sang splendidly. 


182 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


We had the worst time in the recessional. It 
was ‘How sweet the name,’ and just as we 
were coming down the steps, — I don’t know 
what made him do it, but Phil dropped his 
book right whack down on his own toes. We 
both got to laughing so we couldn’t sing any 
coming out. Wasn’t it mean, when we wanted 
to do our best? And Mr. Washburn was 
awfully cross about it.” 

“I don’t know that I wonder," Kob,” said 
Bess. 

“ What did Phil do ? ” asked Fred. “ Did he 
pick up his hymnal ? ” 

“ Course not,” answered Rob, as he secured 
another hairpin; “he couldn’t stop and stoop 
down for it. We just had to go ahead and 
leave the others to hop over it best way they 
could. Say, cousin Bessie, did you ever notice 
that old woman in the front seat, the one in the 
great big black bonnet, with the wreath of 
purple flowers ? ” 

Bess nodded assent, and then turned her 
head to watch her little cousin, as he still sat 
on her chair-arm, steadying himself with a 
hand on her shoulder, while he talked animat- 


HOB AND FRED ENTERTAIN CALLERS. 183 


edly, with his dimples coming and going, and 
his eyes sparkling with fun. At her other side 
sat Fred, with both elbows on the table, and 
his chin in his hands, as he listened to Rob’s 
merry chatter, and occasionally threw in a 
word or two of his own. 

“Well,” pursued Rob, with a chuckle, “she 
hasn’t as much breath as she used to have, but 
she always will sing in the hymns, and some- 
times it’s pretty hard work for her to keep up. 
Last night she lost her breath more than com- 
mon ; and once, after she had stopped to puff a 
minute, she struck in again, full tilt, about an 
octave and a half higher than we were, and it 
made a most awful noise.” 

“ Poor old woman ! ” said Bess, trying to 
speak soberly, while Fred’s shoulders shook. 
“You shouldn’t laugh at such old people, 
Robin. Where’s your chivalry ? ” 

“ I can’t help it, cousin Bess. It was too 
funny to hear her go ^ peep way up high.” 

Bess felt her dignity fast collapsing at Rob’ti 
imitation of the high, quavering voice, and, to 
change the subject, she said, — 

“ Fred and I went to the shore this afternoon,’’ 


184 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Did you ? ” asked Rob. “ Why didn’t you 
wait till after school and let me go, too? I 
haven’t had a drive with you for ever so long.” 

“ You couldn’t have had one to-day,” replied 
Fred. “We walked.” 

“Well, you might have waited for me, any- 
how.” 

“ How do you know we wanted you ? ” asked 
Fred teasingly. 

Rob frowned for a moment, and then, deter- 
mined not to be thrown out from his jolly 
mood, answered with a laugh, — 

“ What’s the difference, so long as I wanted 
you?” 

“ Of course we always do want you, Bob. 
We will go again next Saturday, that is, if 
Miss Bess can, and take our time about it,” 
said Fred, moved to gentleness by his friend’s 
unexpected meekness. 

“Certainly I will go,” said Bess heartily. 
“ Oh, there’s the bell ! Rob, will you go to the 
door, dear ? ” 

Rob vanished on his errand, and soon re- 
appeared, saying disconsolately, — 

“ It’s Mr. Washburn and that tenor, tp see 


ROB AND FRED ENTERTAIN CALLERS. 185 


you. Mean old things ! What did they come 
for ? ” And both the boys scowled darkly in 
the direction of the parlor, as Bess rose to leave 
them, saying laughingly, — 

“ Take good care of each other, and don’t get 
into mischief. Rob, you’d better stay with 
Fred until they go.” And taking a Jacquemi- 
not rose from a vase on the table, she put it in 
the buttonhole of her new gray gown, and was 
gone, leaving the boys in solitary possession of 
the room, except for the great black cat that 
was slumbering peacefully on one end of the 
sofa. 

“I want you to see Miss Carter, Muir,” Mr. 
Washburn had said, as they were putting on 
their hats, preparatory to starting ; “ she is quite 
an unusual young woman. She is not only 
attractive and rather pretty, but she knows a 
thing or two ; and then she has a great gift for 
managing small boys, and making the best of 
them. That little dark-eyed fellow that leads 
the choir is her cousin, and her influence over 
him and two or three of the others helps out 
my discipline wonderfully. I don’t know how 
I should get along without her.” 


185 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Bring on your paragon,” laughed Frank 
Muir. “ It passes my comprehension how any 
woman can manage to keep small boys in order, 
but ril take your word for it.” 

But when he rose to meet Bess as she came 
into the parlor, he felt at once that she might 
easily deserve his friend’s praise, and that her 
pleasant, cordial manner would win the heart of 
the most cross-grained little urchin in existence. 
He was rather critical in his judgment of young 
women, perhaps because they usually courted 
his attentions in a most unblushing fashion; 
but this one was quite to his taste, and he 
settled himself for a long, enjoyable call, exert- 
ing himself to be as entertaining as possible, 
while the rector sat by, reflecting how well they 
were suited to each other. 

But as Bessie sat there, talking so easily of 
one thing and another, with a frank pleasure in 
the young man’s society, she gradually became 
conscious of the fact that her hair was fast 
slipping from its usual smooth coils on top of 
her head, and dropping towards her neck. 
Cautiously putting up her hand to investigate 
the cause, she discovered that, of the four long 


ROB AND FRED ENTERTAIN CALLERS. 187 


pins that usually held it in place, two were 
missing, and of course they were the more 
critical ones. 

“ It is that wretch of a Rob ! ” she thought. 
“ Well, fortunately, it all grows on. But what 
can I do ? '’ 

Warned by the increasing looseness that any 
attempt to move from the room would result in 
a general ruin, she sat as motionless as possible, 
while she tried to talk away as if nothing were 
amiss. Her guests were watching the impend- 
ing catastrophe, the older man, who had a wife 
and sisters of his own, with sympathy, and the 
younger one with unmixed amusement. 

“How I wish they would go home !” medi- 
tated Bess, as she smiled brightly in answer to 
some sally of Mr. Muir. “ Time is precious, for 
this won’t hold five minutes longer, and the 
least move I make will bring it all down.” 

And at the moment, the last pin slipped from 
its place, and a mass of bright, wavy hair fell 
on the girl’s shoulders. It was a trying 
moment, but, determined to make the best of a 
bad matter, she said, — 

“I shall have to be excused for a moment. 


188 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


My mischievous little cousin has been experi- 
menting with my hairpins, without my know- 
ing it. Please excuse me a minute.” And 
with flaming cheeks she fled to her room. 

She was back almost immediately, but not 
before the gentlemen had enjoyed a hearty 
though smothered laugh, and Mr. Muir had 
inquired, — 

“Is this a sample of the fine influence she 
has on small boys ? ” 

The conversation was once more running 
smoothly, and Bess was just losing the recol- 
lection of her mortifying experience, when a 
little sound caught her ears, a light, stealthy 
footstep that cautiously advanced to the drawn 
portiere, and then retreated. Five minutes later 
they all gave a sudden start of surprise, as the 
vigorous, clattering alarm attached to a noisy 
little nickel clock gradually unwound the entire 
length of its spring. It was difficult to talk 
away composedly, but Bess managed to do it ; 
and while her guests were inwardly shaking 
over the too palpable hint, she was longing 
to give the boys an outward shaking for their 
annoying pranks. 


ROB AND FRED ENTERTAIN CALLERS. 189 


Another half-hour passed by, a long one to 
Bess, who momentarily feared a fresh outbreak. 
But quiet seemed to be restored, and she was 
just beginning to breathe freely again, when once 
more she heard the quiet footfall. Turning, 
she gazed towards the doorway in an agony 
of apprehension. What now? The portiere 
trembled, slightly parted, and through the 
opening was pushed the old house cat, a great 
black animal of staid demeanor and unimpeach- 
able dignity. But at this moment the unfortu- 
nate creature’s dignity was not so manifest as 
it might have been. Each one of her four paws 
was wrapped in a neat casing of heavy paper, 
while securely lashed to her glossy tail was the 
mate to the rose that Bess was wearing. 

As if overpowered by her unwonted decora- 
tions, the poor animal stood motionless for a 
moment, and then attempted to walk across the 
room. However, this usually simple operation 
was attended with unforeseen difficulties. 
Pussy’s toes, in their smooth envelopes, slipped 
this way and that as her weight was thrown first 
on one foot, then on the other ; and as she lifted 
each foot, she gave it a hasty but energetic shake 


190 


HALF A DOZEN^ BOYS. 


to free it, before she put it down on the carpet 
again; and in the meantime she was angrily 
snapping her insulted tail from side to side. It 
was too much to be passed over in silence, and, 
to Bessie’s great relief, Frank Muir burst into 
a hearty laugh, as he rose to rescue the un- 
offending cat, who, at sight of the stranger, 
fled under the sofa, and was only dragged out 
with some difficulty. Bess and the rector 
joined in the laugh, and for a few moments no 
one of the three could speak. When she could 
control her voice : 

“ I am sorry, Mr. Muir,” Bess said, “ to be 
forced to apologize for such mischief. The 
truth of the matter is, that I left two small boys 
alone in the library, with nothing to do. This 
is only one more proof that ‘ Satan finds some 
mischief still.’ ” 

“Who are they?” asked Mr. Washburn, 
wiping the tears of mirth from his eyes, while 
Mr. Muir put the cat, now barefooted again, 
down on the floor, and fastened the rose into 
his own buttonhole. 

“ Rob and Fred,” answered Bess. “ I am sorry 
to confess that my small cousin is such an iiiip.” 





Frank Muir burst into a hearty laugh as he rose to 

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ROB AND FRED ENTERTAIN CALLERS. 191 


“I had no idea of it,” said Mr. Washburn. 
“ He is always so demure in the choir, and I 
fancied that Fred was very quiet, too.” 

“ He usually is, but Rob is in one of his wild 
moods to-night, and I suspect they set each other 
on, for it isn’t like either one of them, alone. 
Please excuse them, for I know it was simple 
thoughtlessness, and they had no idea of being 
rude.” 

Bess spoke with such a pretty air of ear- 
nestness that Mr. Muir would have excused 
her boys twice over, even if he had been 
annoyed by their mischief, instead of thoroughly 
amused. 

“ Who are these boys ? ” he asked. “ Is one 
the darker of the choir-leaders, the one with 
the high soprano voice? I think Mr. Wash- 
burn said he was your cousin. And who is the 
other? I think you ought to make them 
appear now.” 

Bess hesitated for a moment. 

“If Mr. Washburn will tell you about Fred 
while I anv gone, I will go to call them,” she 
said. 

Rob had prudently gone home, and Fred was 


192 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


on the sofa, apparently asleep, but Bess knew 
better than that. 

“Come, Fred,” she said seriously, as she bent 
over him, “ I want you to come into the parlor 
now. Mr. Washburn and Mr. Muir have asked 
to see you. I am sorry my boy should have 
forgotten himself and been so rude to guests.” 

“ Oh, Miss Bessie,” said Fred penitently, for 
he read from Bessie’s tone that she was really 
displeased, “ we truly didn’t mean any harm, 
only they stayed so long that we thought per- 
haps they’d forgotten the time, and would 
hurry a little if they knew it, so as to give us a 
chance to have some fun. I’m so sorry ! ” 

“ I don’t think you did mean to be quite so 
ungentle manly,” answered Bess quietly. “ But 
we will talk it over by and by. Now come 
with me.” 

“ Oh, no ! Must I ? ” And the child drew 
back. 

“Yes, Fred.” 

Frank Muir glanced up as they entered the 
parlor. He had been interested in his friend’s 
account of the child, and was curious to see the 
imp who had caused so much embarrassment 


ROB AND FRED ENTERTAIN CALLERS. 193 


and amusement for them all. But when he 
caught sight of the strong, finely formed little 
figure, the head set so proudly on his shoulders, 
the refined, sensitive face that showed so plainly 
every thought and feeling, and the great, plead- 
ing brown eyes, as the boy came shyly into the 
room, his own eyes grew strangely misty, and 
his face was very tender and pitiful as he 
went forward, saying heartily, — 

“So this is the small friend that has been 
giving us a good laugh.” And, drawing the 
child to the sofa, he sat down by his side. 

“ I didn’t mean to be rude,” said Fred 
slowly. “It sounded like such fun. Please 
excuse us.” 

“ Excuse you,” said Mr. Muir, laughing, 
though he watched the boy closely, attracted by 
his grace of manner and gentle face ; “ it doesn’t 
need to be excused, for we enjoyed it as much 
as you did ; and then I have a vivid recollection 
of some of my own performances in that line, 
that makes me appreciate yours all the more. 
And so your friend went home, did he ? I 
should have liked to see him, for I enjoyed his 
singing last night.” 


194 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Rob told me about your being there,” said 
Fred, completely won from his shyness by the 
kind, genial manner of his new friend. “ I wish 
I’d gone, for I heard you sing last January, 
and I don’t believe I shall ever forget that.” 

Frank Muir had received many a compliment 
for his singing, but never had one pleased him 
more than this, so innocently given. 

“ Do you like music ? ” he asked pleasantly. 

“Yes, ever so much,” Fred answered. “I 
was going into the choir, if I hadn’t been — 
sick ; and that night you sang, it was the first 
time I had heard any music for ’most a year. 
Some people put too much flourish into their 
singing. I don’t know whether you’ll know 
what I mean, but, anyway, you sang just as if 
you meant it.” 

Bess, in the midst of her chat with the 
rector, wondered to see the boy talking so 
freely with a stranger. She wondered yet 
more when to Mr. Muir’s frank, sympathizing 
question, — 

“ Have you been — sick long? ” 

Fred answered bravely, with no trace of his 
usual sensitiveness, — 


HOB AND FBED ENTERTAIN CALLERS. 195 


“ More than a year. I studied too much, and 
was sick ever so long. Then I went to Boston, 
and there I grew blind, about six months ago.” 

“ Poor Fred ! ” said Mr. Muir, gently strok- 
ing the firm little hand that lay by his side. 

“Yes, it was pretty bad at first, but since I 
came here,” and Fred lowered his voice to a 
confidential murmur, “ I’ve had such good times. 
You see. Miss Bess is no end good to me, and 
she’s more fun than half the boys. She reads 
to me and plays games with me, and we go to 
walk together, and, really, we do have lots of 
fun.” 

“You are a real hero, my boy,” said Mr. 
Muir warmly. “ A brave boy will make a 
brave man.” 

“Yes,” said Fred, nodding soberly; “that’s 

V 

what Miss Bess said she wanted me to be. 
But it’s kind of hard work sometimes, for I do 
get awfully mad at the boys when they do 
things 1 can’t.” 

Frank Muir smiled to himself at the con- 
fession so artlessly made. The boy interested 
him greatly, for he seemed so shy, yet had 
responded so quickly to his attentions. And 


196 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


wliat a picture he made there, sitting on one 
foot on the sofa, with the other foot in its 
dainty slipper dangling towards the floor, while, 
in his earnest talking, his color came and went, 
and his smile and frown succeeded each other 
by turns. 

“As long as you were not at church last 
night,” the young man proposed, “suppose I 
sing something to you now. That is, of course, 
if Miss Carter will excuse us.” And he looked 
to her for her consent. 

“ That isn’t much like Muir,” said Mr. 
Washburn in a low tone, as his friend seated 
himself at the piano. “He isn’t given to 
singing, except when he has to. He seems to 
have taken a fancy to your charge there.” 

“ Fred surely returns the compliment,” said 
Bess, as the boy followed to the piano. “ I 
don’t see what has come over him to talk so 
much to a stranger, for he is usually so shy.” 

“ Muir is irresistible to nearly everybody, I 
find,” replied the rector quietly. 

Then they were silent, as Mr. Muir played a 
little prelude, light, rocking, swinging, with an 
occasional dash like the breaking of a tiny wave 


ROB AND FRED ENTERTAIN CALLERS. 197 


on a pebbly shore. Then, in the same clear, 
sweet tenor that had fascinated the child before, 
he began to sing the quaint little lullaby, — 

“ Wyriken, Blynken, and Nod one night 
Sailed off in a wooden shoe — 

Sailed on a river of misty light, 

Into a sea of dew. 

‘ Where are yon going, and what do you wish.P’ 

The old moon asked the three. 

‘ We have come to hsli for the herring-fish 
That live in this beautiful sea ; 

Nets of silver and gold have we,’ 

Said Wynken, 

Blynken, 

And Nod.” 

When he had finished, he turned away from 
the piano with a laugh. 

“ There ! ” he said, as he rested his hand on 
Fred’s shoulder. ‘‘ I know boys like nonsense 
songs, and what could be more appropriate than 
this charming little Dutch one, after the hint 
you gave us with that alarm clock? Wash- 
burn, we’ve made a disgracefully long call, and 
we ought to have left Miss Carter in peace long 
ago.” 

“ Oh, Mr. Muir, don’t stop ! ” urged Bess. 


198 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Please sing something more, just one.” And 
she motioned him back to the piano. 

The young man demurred a little, but, as she 
insisted, — 

‘‘ Well,” said he, “I sang to Fred before, now 
I will sing to you.” 

And, after a few random chords, he gradually 
drifted into the prelude to Schubert’s “ Sere- 
nade,” a song that had always won the enthusi- 
astic applause of the impressionable young ladies 
whom he met in society. With all its intense 
sentimentality, it had never been a favorite with 
practical Bess ; but there was no resisting the 
influence of such a voice, and before he had 
finished a dozen notes, Bess was held by the 
same charm which she had felt that other 
evening in the church. She was fast losing all 
consciousness of everytliing but the passionate 
beauty of the music, when a long, gusty howl 
brought her back to herself, and made them all 
turn their heads to see whence the sound pro- 
ceeded. There on the floor sat Fuzz, erect on 
his haunches, his paws in the air and his curls 
dejectedly flattened over one eye, while, with 
his nose pointed skyward, he was giving expres- 


ROB AND FRED ENTERTAIN CALLERS. 199 


sion to his feelings in wail after wail, each one 
longer and louder than the last. Bess sprang 
to catch the dog, but with a quick movement he 
dodged away, and ran to the other side of Mr. 
Muir, where he again sat up, and, at the next 
high note, chimed in with another discordant 
shriek, while his furiously wagging tail ex- 
pressed his pleasure in this novel duet. It was 
useless to try to go on, and the singer rose from 
the piano, while Bess said, — 

“ This is too much, Mr. Muir ! What must 
you think of such a household? Between the 
boys and the dog, your evening has been a 
remarkable one.” 

And not even the young man’s laughing 
assurance of his enjoyment of it ail, could 
entirely restore her ease of manner while the 
good-nights were being said. 

After Mr. Muir was at the door, he came 
back to shake hands once more with Fred, and 
say, — 

“ Good-night, my brave boy. I am glad I 
have seen you, and I hope we shall meet again 
some day.” 

“ I say,” he remarked to his friend, as they 


200 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


walked away from the house, “I think your 
paragon is an uncommonly attractive girl, but if 
this is a specimen of her wonderful influence 
over boys, I shudder to think what your disci- 
pline would be without her help.” Then, as 
he pulled up the lapel of his coat to sniff at the 
rose, he added, “That boy is a wonderfully 
lovable child. ' Some one is giving him splendid 
training, and, from what you tell of his parents, 
I dimly suspect that Miss Carter is the one. 
And, Washburn, that dog would be an invalua- 
ble addition to your choir.” 


THE DISADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 201 


CHAPTER XL 

THE DISADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 

“I AM sorry, Miss Bess. I was sorry the 
minute I’d said so, but Ted’s bragging about 
his lessons always makes me mad.” 

“He didn’t ‘brag,’ dear. I had asked him 
about school, and you were telling what your 
class did. You can’t blame him for standing 
up for his own class, can you ? ” 

“ No,” admitted Fred, “but he needn’t go to 
crowing over ours.” 

“ True. But you needn’t have resented it as 
quickly as you did. If you could have seen 
Teddy’s face, Fred, and how hard he tried to 
keep from answering you sharply, I don’t think 
you would have been so angry for a little in- 
considerate word.” 

“ That’s just it ! ” said the boy forlornly. 
“ Things seem so different now from what they 
used to, and I never know just how they are 
going. ’Tisn’t much use for me to try to be 


202 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS, 


good, Miss Bess ! I go along well enough for a 
little while, and then all of a sudden I spoil it 
all.” And Fred gave the carpet an impatient 
kick, as he sat on the floor at Bessie’s feet. 
Then, reaching up for her hand, he pulled it 
down and laid his cheek against it. 

“ You see,” he went on in the comically wise, 
old-mannish tone of explanation that his voice 
took on at times, “ I believe I wish I’d had some 
brothers and sisters. Till I came here, I didn’t 
see so much of the boys, except at school, for 
mother didn’t like to have them round the 
house ; and I guess, being the only one, I did 
get sort of cranky, and now I’m here, even, I 
don’t get over it.” 

There was silence for a few moments, and 
then Fred continued confidentially, — 

“ Do you know. Miss Bessie, I don’t think 
my father and mother care for me just the same 
way Rob’s and Ted’s do for them.” 

“ Why, Fred ! ” said Bess, with a start of 
surprise. “ What can have given you such an 
idea? ” 

‘‘ W ell, lots of things ; their going ofl and 
leaving me — but I’m awfully glad they did 


THE DISADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 203 

that, because it’s more fun to be here than at 
home, and they don’t write often, nor care to 
hear from me, only once a month. I’ve thought 
it all out, and it’s reasonable enough. You 
see, I can’t do things much now, or by and by 
when I am a man, and they want somebody 
that can. Father used to say that he hoped I 
would study to go into his office ; and mother 
wanted me to take dancing lessons, so I could 
go to parties and things ; but of course I can’t 
do that, and I s’pose they are sorry. 1 don’t 
wonder a bit. I don’t mean that they don’t 
care anything about me. Mother said to me 
one day not long before she went, ‘ I love you 
just as well, Fred, as if you weren’t blind.’ 
That was the first I’d thought much about it, 
and then I began to think it over. I don’t 
suppose she does, quite; do you. Miss Bessie?” 
And he turned his face wistfully up to hers. 

“ Why, of course, Fred. If anything, my 
boy, we all love you more than ever, and it is 
just because we care for you so much that we 
want you to be a man we can feel proud of.” 

“Do you honestly like me just as well?” 
persisted the boy, “ I am sure mother doesn’t, 


204 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


for she doesn’t like to have me round very- 
much, and she never pets me the way she used 
to do. I heard her tell father once that she 
used to wish I’d hurry and grow up, but now 
she never did, because she couldn’t see what 
they’d do with me. It’s horrid to feel you’re in 
the way. Miss Bessie ! ” 

“ I wish I could keep you always, Fred,” said 
Bess seriously, for she felt the pain in the 
child’s voice and face, as he spoke of his absent 
mother. 

“ I just wish you could ! You are as good as 
a mother and sister and brother, all at once. 
But you said that night, ever so long ago, that I 
mustn’t wish I was dead, or out of the way, or 
anything, because that’s cowardly; but what 
can I do, when I know I’m going to be in 
everybody’s way ? ” 

“But you aren’t, Fred. We all need you 
and want you with us. You help fill up this 
house now and make it brighter for us, so we 
couldn’t get along at all without you. And, 
wherever you go and whatever you do in the 
future, I want you always to remember that 
you have this one friend who is looking for the 


THE DISADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 205 


time when her Fred will be a good and true 
man, and she knows that it will come some 
day. And always, Fred, when things go wrong, 
come straight to me, and we will talk it all over 
together, and see if we can’t find the right of 
it. But don’t for a moment think that just 
because you can’t see, we care for you any less, 
instead of a great deal more than ever.” 

“ More than before I went to Boston ? ” asked 
Fred wonderingly. “And you aren’t ashamed 
to take me round with you ? ” 

“Fred!” exclaimed Bess, shocked at the 
idea. “ What could ever suggest such a thing 
to you? ” 

“Nothing, only I know mother was. She 
never took me anywhere with her, and I heard 
her say so one day, when she didn’t know I 
was there ; and so I just thought I’d ask you 
about it. I’m glad you don’t mind. And I’ll 
tell Ted to-morrow night that I’m sorry. 
Good-night.” 

As was her usual habit, Bess went up-stairs a 
little later to say good-night, and see that the 
boy needed nothing. When she came down- 
stairs again, tempted by the warm June moon- 


206 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


light, she went out to the piazza and dropped 
into a hammock. The tall trees on the lawn 
threw dark patches of shade on the grass, that 
came and went as the evening wind moved the 
leafy branches, or vanished in one dull, uni- 
form shadow as the full moon went behind some 
fleecy bit of cloud. A distant whippoorwill, 
singing his sad night song, was the only sound 
that broke the stillness. Bess swung there 
with her hands clasped above her head, and one 
toe resting on the floor, enjoying the quiet 
beauty of the night. 

“ How lovely it all is ! ” she thought. “ And 
Fred has none of it to enjoy. Poor child ! 
And with such a mother ! ” 

The next evening was Saturday, and with it 
came the boys, all in high glee, for their school 
had closed the day before, and the endless vista 
of the long vacation and its prospective good 
times was stretching before their eyes, and even 
the trial of a rainy Saturday was not as hard to 
bear, when thirteen weeks of continual Satur- 
day lay in the near future. 

“ Phil and I had a fine scheme coming up 
here,” said Bert, as he took off his dripping 


THE DISADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 207 


rubber coat ; “ Phil had a bag of peanuts, and 
we just stuck the umbrella handle down my 
neck to hold it, so we could both eat, all the 
way.” 

“ Yes,” put in Phil, as he furtively swallowed 
the last of his feast. “ But I didn’t get much 
of the umbrella, just the same, and my legs got 
awfully wet, for they hung out behind it, too. 
Any boys here yet ? ” 

“Nobody but me,” said Fred, strolling into 
the hall. “ There come Rob and Sam,” he 
added, as a step was heard. 

“I don’t see how you tell so quick,” said 
Phil admiringly. “ They all sound just alike 
to me ; don’t they to you, Bert? ” 

“ Yes, they do to me,” said Bert gently, as 
he passed his arm through Fred’s and started 
for the library ; “ but if I just had to listen all 
the time, I think I should know you all apart. 
But I don’t suppose I care to try ; do I, Fred? ” 

Teddy was the last arrival. 

“ I stopped to get these,” he explained, toss- 
ing a huge bunch of many-colored roses into 
Bessie’s lap. “ And here’s an extra smelly one 
for you, Fred.” And he put into his hand a 


208 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


great pink blossom whose stem was carefully 
divested of every thorn. 

The subject of the evening was, by Rob’s 
choice, the shell-fish found along the shore ; 
and the boys entered into it with an enthusiasm 
that moved Bess to suggest, — 

“ You boys seem so interested in animals and 
things of that kind, why don’t you start a 
museum of specimens ? ” 

“What should we get to put in it?” asked 
Phil, as, with both hands behind him, he 
endeavored to crack a nut without being caught 
in the act. A click of the shell betrayed 
him, and he blushed furiously, as Bess raised 
her eyebrows at him, while Rob answered 
promptly, — 

“ Oh, bugs and butterflies.” 

And Sam added, — 

“ Stones and shells.” 

“ Want any snakes?” asked Ted wickedly. 

“ Never ! ” replied Bess with fervor. “ I 
don’t want anything alive. I only meant moths 
and butterflies, or perhaps pressed flowers and 
curious stones and shells, that would help us 
understand the world we live in, and teach 


THE DISADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 209 


US all to keep our eyes open for fresh dis- 
coveries.” 

“ What should we do with them ? ” inquired 
Ted, who had been meditatively sticking out 
his tongue, as he pondered the subject of the 
museum. 

“ Which, discoveries or specimens? We can 
decide when we get them,” answered Bess, 
laughing, while another crack from Phil’s direc- 
tion showed that that youth’s hunger was not 
yet appeased. 

“ Let’s put in Phil,” suggested Rob. “ He’s 
as fond of peanuts as a monkey at a circus, and 
if we caged him up, he’d make a splendid 
animal to start with.” 

“ We’ll put you in for a hyena,” retorted 
Phil good-naturedly. “ You howled like one 
at rehearsal last night.” 

“We might start a menagerie among our- 
selves,” said Bert. “Ted could be the ele- 
phant, and Sam a ” — 

“Bear?” inquired Sam. “No, thank you; 
I’d rather get up a collection of smaller game. 
Now vacation has come, we’d have plenty of 
time ” — 


210 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Speaking of vacation reminds me,” said 
Bert, interrupting him ; “ I made a mistake the 
other day about my history mark. Miss 
Witherspoon found another mistake afterwards, 
and that made it lower than I told you. I just 
thought I’d speak about it, Miss Bessie, as long 
as I’d told you too high before.” 

Bess was about to say that Bert’s honor in 
telling her this was far better than the mere get- 
ting a high mark, when Teddy, the irrepressible, 
suddenly broke in, — 

“ I’ve a conundrum for you young lads. 
What’s Phil’s favorite slang?” 

Phil looked up curiously, while the boys 
ventured various suggestions. 

“ Give it up ? ” queried Ted. “ Why, how 
stupid you all are ! Cracky, of course ! ” And 
there was a shout at Phil’s expense. 

The talk ran on, and no further mention of 
the collection was made. Bess thought nothing 
more about it, until the next Monday afternoon, 
when she sat sewing on the piazza, hurrying to 
finish some bit of work. Suddenly Fred, who 
was swinging idly in the hammock, an- 
nounced, — 


THE DISADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 211 


“ Here come the boys.” 

“ I don’t hear them,” said Bess, after listen- 
ing for a moment. 

“ I do, then. They are coming, but not very 
near. You wait and see.” 

“ I never saw such ears, Fred ! ” said Bess, 
laughing. “ They are so long, I shall call you 
my rabbit.” 

Fred rubbed his ears reflectively. 

“ Yes, they are good size, but I have to see 
and hear with them both. But what do you 
think about the boys now ? ” he added, as Rob, 
Ted, Sam, and Phil, a noisy quartette, turned 
in at the gate. 

“ I think your ears were better than my 
eyes,” answered Bess, as she rose to receive her 
guests. 

“Oh, cousin Bess, we’ve got lots of speci- 
mens ! ” shouted Rob from afar, and Ted 
added, — 

“ A good start for our museum, sure enough ! ” 
while the boys settled themselves on the piazza 
rail, and pulled various boxes from their 
pockets. 

“ Here are five moth-millers and a. hornbug,” 


212 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


announced Sam, producing some rather dilapi- 
dated specimens, for the hornbug had lost three 
legs, and of the moths, one was minus both an- 
tennae, and another had a great slit in one wing. 

“ I’ve got eight moths,” said Phil. “ I picked 
them up under the electric light. They’re real 
good ones, only they are singed a little. I 
s’pose that’s what killed them. And here,” 
diving into his trousers pocket, “ is a bumble- 
bee my father killed yesterday. Oh, dear ! 
His head’s come oft. Can’t we stick it on ? ” 

Ted had also brought his share of mangled 
veterans, and Rob showed three or four moths, 
quite well prepared, and a pair of golden yellow 
June bugs. 

It was with some difficulty that Bessie pre- 
served her gravity as she saw the ruins spread 
out before her. But, always mindful that 
much of her influence over her boys lay in her 
hearty sympathy in all their hobbies, she looked 
them over with an air of deep interest, and then 
sent Rob into the library for a certain book that 
not only had fine pictures of all sorts and con- 
ditions of insects, but also gave full instructions 
for their capture and preservation. 


THE DISADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 213 


“ If you are going to do anything about it, 
my boys,” said she, “ you would much better 
start in the right way at the very first, so we 
can have a really good collection ; and then we 
can try to have a full one, of all the insects in 
the region. If you must collect, this is better 
than the barbarous, cruel habit so many boys 
have of stealing birds’ eggs, too often nest and 
all. The eggs themselves won’t teach you any- 
thing about the birds ; while from these, you 
can get some idea of the life and habits of these 
little creatures.” 

“ Just look at this one ! ” exclaimed Ted, 
pouncing on one of the two perfect specimens, 
a pale green lunar moth. “ Oh, dear ! There 
goes one of his wings. What are these fellows 
so brittle for ? ” 

“ That is another thing. You mustn’t handle 
these specimens or they will break. Now, let 
us see what we can find out about them.” 

And the next hour was spent in a pleasant 
talk about the form and habits of these tiny 
creatures, a talk that the boys never forgot, for 
it taught them, for the first time, the great plan 
of creation, that develops in each living creature 


214 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


the bodily form which will help it most to live 
its little life, an explanation so clearly and 
vividly given that even Fred felt no need of 
the pictures to understand the mechanism of 
their small bodies. 

The collecting fever spread, and the boys 
were often seen skipping about the fields, or 
plunging headlong over fences, net in hand, in 
pursuit of some gaudy butterfly. Bessie tried 
faithfully to make the boys feel that the main 
object was not the catching and killing the 
insects ; but that this was only to help them to 
a fuller understanding of the nature and varie- 
ties of their prey. Their whole energy was 
directed in the line of insects, and boxes of 
specimens so rapidly collected, that the pros- 
pect was that the- whole Carter family would 
soon have to move out of the house, to make 
room for the army of moths and beetles, 
cocoons and butterflies, that speedily accumu- 
lated. Even long-suffering Mrs. Carter pro- 
tested when, one day, on the piazza, she chanced 
to knock down a box containing a huge green 
worm that Rob had carefully provided with 
food and air-holes, and shut up, in the hope that 


THE DISADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 215 


he would spin himself into a chrysalis ; for, as 
the cover of the box fell off, out dropped, not 
only the captive worm, now dead, but also a 
multitude of little yellow wrigglers, that quickly 
squirmed away. 

“ The worst of it all is,” said Bess ruefully, 
when her mother brought up the subject, “ peo- 
ple seem to think that I am having this done 
for my own especial pleasure and profit. I 
don’t see what they think I want of them, unless 
I collect them, as the Chinese do the bones of 
their ancestors and friends, to bury them in some 
particular, consecrated spot. I was writing the 
other day, in a great hurry to finish my letter 
to Mr. Allen in time for the steamer, when 
Bridget came up to my room, and said some 
little girls wanted to see me. I went down to 
the back door, and there stood the five Tracy 
children, in a row. As soon as I appeared, the 
oldest, who acted as spokeswoman, came for- 
ward and solemnly presented me with three 
tattered butterflies. I had such hard work to 
be just grateful enough to satisfy them, and yet 
not encourage them to bring me any more. 
And the last time Mrs. Walsh called, that day 


216 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


you were out, she produced a small box that 
held a common little white moth, and told me 
Bert said that I wanted all those I could get, 
so she had brought me that one. Well, laddie, 
what now ? ” she added, as Fred came into Mrs. 
Carter’s room, where they were sitting. 

“ There’s a boy down-stairs,” he replied, 
“ that wants to see you. I don’t know who he 
is. He saw me on the piazza, and went round 
there to me.” 

“ I wonder who he is,” said Bess, as she laid 
down her work and went out of the room. 

She soon came up again, looking both amused 
and disgusted. 

“ Another ! ” she exclaimed, as she took up 
her sewing. 

“ What is it now ? ” asked her mother, laugh- 
ing. 

“ It was that little red-haired Irish boy that 
lives in behind the church. I don’t know what 
his name is, but alas ! he knows me. He came 
to bring me some twigs, apple, I should think, 
and on each one was a horrid great worm ” — 
and Bess shivered at the recollection — 
“ covered with red and yello\y bristles, I told 


THE DISADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 217 


him I was much obliged, but I really didn’t 
know where I could keep them ; but the poor 
little fellow — I shouldn’t think he was more 
than seven or eight — looked so disappointed 
that I finally took them. I grieve to say that I 
cremated them as soon as he had gone. Fred, 
if you love me, do, oh, do tell the boys that we 
only want dead specimens. My plan was for a 
museum, not a menagerie ; but if matters go 
on like this, the club will soon become my 
bugaboo.” 


218 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


CHAPTER XIL 

THEIR SUMMER OUTING. 

“Island Den,” Thousand Islands, 
July 27, 18—. 

My dear Bess, — I know you always have been a 
good, kind-hearted little'soul, and now 1 am going to 
throw myself on your benevolence and ask a favor of 
you. Say yes, that’s a dear little sister! It is just this 
that I want, — a two weeks’ visit from you. “Island 
Den ” was never half so cosy as this summer, and there 
were never half so many pleasant people over at the 
hotel. The change will do you good, and I have 
already heard from mother, saying that she can spare 
you as well as not. Jack and the children want to see 
you as badly as I do. 

But as long as I know you’ll never consent to drop 
all care — you’ve had too much these last months for a 
young thing like you — and leave that boy of 3 ’ours at 
home, as would be ever so much better for you, bring 
him with 3 'ou, if you think he will be contented here. 
Jack sa^^s two boys take up no more room than one, and 
Rob had better come too, to be compan}^ for him after 
we have talked each other to death. Isn’t he imperti- 
nent? But it is a good idea, for they will amuse each 


THEIR SUMMER OUTING. 


219 


otlier and leave us more time. Rob has never been 
liere, and I am quite curious to see your other charge. 
Do liurry to come, for I am impatient to see you. I 
should think you might start by the first of next Aveek. 

Jack wishes me to enclose these tickets for the jour- 
ney, as a last inducement. He says I am to tell you 
that they will be wasted unless you use them, and that 
will be sure to bring you, as your frugal soul cannot bear 
to waste anything. 

I won’t say any more, for you will be here so soon ; 
and then how we will talk ! 

Your loving sister, 

Alice. 

This was the letter which had caused a 
sensation in the Carter household. Alice 
Carter, ten years older than Bess, had married 
a wealthy New York banker, and was now the 
mother of two little girls. “ Island Den,” their 
luxurious summer home, was on one of the 
Thousand Islands, whither for years they had 
gone to spend the months of July and August, 
and keep open house for their friends. 

It was now three years since Bess had been 
able to accept her annual invitation to go there, 
for it was an expensive little trip, and of late 
some treacherous Western loans had decidedly 


220 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


lessened her father’s income, and reduced the 
family from the comfortable position of doing 
just about as their rather simple inclinations 
led them, to the need of carefully counting the 
smaller expenses that so quickly absorb money, 
— no marked change, only they did not travel 
quite as much, nor keep a horse and carriage, 
nor have quite so many gowns, while those 
they had they made themselves. The more 
than liberal sum that Mr. Allen was paying 
them for the board and care of Fred was far 
more helpful than he had realized when he had 
made them the offer, although the money bar- 
gain had been by no means a determining 
cause in their taking Fred into their home. 
And, this year, Bess had felt that it would be 
more than ever impossible for her to go away 
to leave Fred, both on her mother’s account 
and the boy’s own, for the child clung to her 
more and more closely, with a devotion touch- 
ing to see. 

But Alice and Jack had smoothed away 
every difficulty, and Bess, with her conscience 
at rest, could now accept their threefold invi- 
tation. Now there was a prospect of change, 


THEIR SUMMER OUTING. 


221 


the girl admitted to herself that she was a little 
tired, and well she might be, for, in addition to 
her other duties, she had given constant thought 
and care, as well as much time and countless 
steps, to the boy who had so grown to depend 
upon her. But if, at the close of a long day, 
the thought of her own weariness ever crossed 
her mind, the memory of all that the child liad 
lost, and of the brave fight he was making 
against the. burden of his blindness, made her 
scorn the thought of self, as unworthy of the 
courage and patient endurance she was daily 
preaching to the child, and gave her new 
strength to go on. 

Rob was in raptures over the prospective 
journey, and, during the week before they were 
to start, he made almost hourly calls on Bess, 
to see how her preparations were coming on. 
The morning after he was told of his invitation 
and its acceptance, he was up early, and, be- 
fore breakfast, had gone into the attic, scattered 
over the floor the usual contents of a small 
trunk, long past its days of active service and 
now only used for storage, and secretly con- 
veyed the trunk to his own room. By dinner- 


222 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


time, many of his possessions were stowed away 
in its depths ; books, games, his air-rifle, several 
yards of mosquito netting for butterfly-nets, a 
choice collection of fish-hooks, and an odd 
assortment of strings and small articles of hard- 
ware that filled it to the brim, leaving room for 
not so much as a single handkerchief. Each 
day he added to his hoard, to the amusement of 
his mother, who let him have his way until the 
final packing, when she should bring order out 
of chaos. 

Fred scarcely looked forward to their going 
with as much pleasure as Rob, for at the idea 
of the journey and of meeting so many 
strangers, his shy sensitiveness returned in all 
its force, and he would gladly have spent the 
time alone with the servants at his father’s 
house, rather than run the gauntlet of the 
curious and thoughtless, though not unkind 
comments that always met him Avhen he went 
among strangers. 

However, it was a merry party that, one 
cloudy August morning, Mr. Carter escorted as 
far as Boston, and settled in the train for 
Albany, where they were to change to a 


THEIR SUMMER OUTING. 


223 


sleeper. Rob, in a light summer suit, armed 
with a jointed fishing-pole, and his tennis 
racket, his mother’s compromise in the affair of 
the trunk, led the way into the car. Mr. Carter 
followed with a lunch basket of noble propor- 
tions, for experience had taught Bessie that boy 
appetites are unfailing, and, on Fred’s account, 
she dared not depend on railway dining-rooms. 
Bess, with Fred, brought up the rear of the 
procession. Rob was bubbling over with fun 
and nonsense, so that Fred caught his spirit 
and answered jest with jest. As Mr. Carter 
left them, Bess turned and surveyed her charges 
with a feeling of almost maternal pride. Two 
more bonnie boys it would have been hard to 
find that day. 

“I wonder if I look like their mother, or 
what people think I am,” she thought, as she 
looked from the quiet boy at her side to the 
lively one opposite her. “ I don’t care very 
much — Oh, Rob, be careful,” she exclaimed 
aloud, as that youth, in changing the position 
of his fishing-pole, recklessly battered the rear 
of the respectable black bonnet worn by an old 
woman in front of him. 


224 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


Rob instantly turned to offer a meek apology, 
but it had no effect on the irate woman, who 
grasped her bonnet firmly with both hands, as 
she exclaimed, — 

“Needn’t knock a body’s head off! Folks 
shouldn’t take boys on the keers till they know 
how to behave ! ” 

“ I am very sorry, ma’am,” ventured Rob 
again. 

“ So you’d ought to be ! ” was the snappish 
rejoinder. “ I hope you are ashamed of yourself 
to go hitting a woman old enough to be 3^our 
mother with your nuisancing contraptions ! ” 
Then, with a backward glance, she added, as if 
to herself, “ That other one looks more as if 
he’d behave himself somehow. I guess I’ll 
move round and set behind him.” 

And she gathered up her belongings and 
moved back, where the worthy soul lent an 
attentive ear to all their conversation, and 
watched Fred with curious eyes, while from 
time to time she scowled disapprovingly on 
Rob, who was quite subdued by his misad- 
venture. 

Of course, Rob wished to take a lunch before 


THEIR SUMMER OUTING. 


225 


they were fairly outside of Boston, and, equally 
of course, he desired to patronize every trip of 
the newsboy, and the vender of prize packages 
of cough candy, each one of which was war- 
ranted to contain a rich jewel ; but on these 
small points Bess was firm, and he abandoned 
himself to the alternate pleasures of gazing out 
at the car window at the miles of back doors, 
each filled with a family as much interested in 
the train as if it were some rare and curious 
object, and of inspecting his fellow-passengers, 
the usual assortment. Across from them was 
a young Japanese, who had intensified the 
effect of his swarthy skin by mounting a white 
felt hat. With him sat a man who was so 
drowsy that his head constantly dropped for- 
ward on the round silver knob that headed his 
cane, at the imminent risk of putting out his 
eyes. The force of the blow never failed to 
waken him, and he straightened himself up with 
a sheepishly defiant air, as if to refute any possi- 
ble denial of his wakefulness. Behind him sat 
a spinster of sixty, with lank side curls and a 
fidgety manner of moving her satchel about. 
There was the usual number of commercial 


226 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


travellers — why have they appropriated the 
name? — who, with their silk hats carefully 
put away in the racks, and replaced by undigni- 
tied skull-caps, took out their note- books and 
wrote up the record of their last sales ; there 
was the usual Irish mamma with five small 
children, who walked the entire length of the 
car and planted herself in the little corner seat 
next the door, with her offspring about her, 
budget in hand, ready to leave the train at a 
moment’s notice ; and there were a few young 
women, each absorbed in her novel or magazine, 
whom Rob surveyed with disfavor, as not being 
as pretty as cousin Bess. 

Leaning far forward, he was just describing 
some of these people for Fred’s benefit, when a 
sudden voice behind them made all three of the 
party start. It was the woman whose bonnet 
Rob had hit. 

‘‘ I want to know what’s the matter with that 
’ere boy,” she demanded in no gentle tone, as 
she pointed at Fred. ‘‘Can’t he see, or what 
on airth’s the matter with him ? ” 

Poor Fred! His laugh died away, and, turn- 
ing very white, he leaned back in his corner, 


THEIR SUMMER OUTING. 


227 


while Bess answered their inquisitive neighbor 
with an icy politeness, as she gave the boy’s 
hand an encouraging pat. The brutal abrupt- 
ness of the question was more than the child 
could bear, and it was long before he could 
speak or join in the conversation. Rob, mean- 
while, was vowing vengeance. His opportu- 
nity soon came. 

Directly in front of him, in the seat vacated 
by his enemy, sat a middle-aged man, who was 
carrying in his pocket a small gray kitten, 
probably a gift to some child at home. Rob 
had noticed the little animal as the gentleman 
came in, and from time to time he had turned 
to peep over at it, when its owner was absorbed 
in his reading. At length the man laid aside 
his paper, and turned to give his attention to 
the cat, which, however, was nowhere to be 
found. He began to search about for it, look- 
ing rather anxious. A sudden, naughty idea 
flashed into Rob’s brain. Rising with an air of 
polite sympathy, he inquired in a loud and 
cheerful voice, — 

“Can’t I help you, sir? Which was it, a 
rattler, or just a common snake ? ” 


228 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


The effect was instantaneous. 

“ Massy on us ! ” piped the aged heroine of 
the bonnet. “ Snakes ! Ow ! ” And she 
climbed nimbly up on the seat, an example 
quickly followed by her opposite neighbor. 
And though the cat was soon found and exhib- 
ited, the two worthy women sat sideways on 
the seat, their feet and skirts carefully tucked 
up beside them, until they left the train at 
Albany. 

“ Rob, how could you ? ” said Bess reprov- 
ingly, when quiet was restored. 

“ I don’t care, cousin Bess. She was so 
mean to Fred that I did it on purpose, and I 
sha’n’t say I am sorry.” 

And Bess prudently changed the subject. 

After a long delay at Albany, our travellers 
settled themselves anew in their sleeper. 
Neither of the boys had ever before travelled all 
night, and it seemed so cosy to go gliding away 
through the darkness that was slowly shutting 
in the landscape. There were few people in 
the car, and Rob prowled up and down, investi- 
gating his quarters, and making the acquaint- 
ance of the porter; while Bess chatted with 


THEIR SUMMER OUTING. 


229 


Fred, at ease once more now that his dreaded 
neighbor had departed. 

“ I wish people wouldn’t say such things,” he 
told Bess. “ Once in a while I forget, but 
somebody always reminds me again, and it just 
makes me feel as if everybody was watching 
me.” 

“ It was a cruel question, cruelly asked,” said 
Bess with some energy, as she pulled off her 
gloves and took off her hat, preparatory to a 
comfortable evening. “ If people only knew 
how such remarks hurt ! I wish I could save 
you from them, laddie.” 

At this moment, Rob came back to his seat, 
and remarked with conscious, but impenitent 
pride, — 

“ Didn’t I just pay up that old woman ? 
Mean old thing ! ” 

Then he devoted his attention to the porter, 
as he converted the seats into diminutive bed- 
rooms, partitioned and curtained off and 
sumptuously furnished with a mirror and a wall 
pocket. 

Long after the boys were stowed away for the 
night, Bess could hear them whisper and giggle 


230 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


when a particularly loud snore from their next 
neighbor broke the stillness ; and at each stop- 
ping-place she heard Rob’s curtain fly up, to let 
him look out on the silent towns. 

' “ Doesn’t our Bess look matronly I ” ex- 

claimed Alice Rogers the next morning, when 
she saw Bess and her two companions coming 
towards her. “ That one with her must be 
Fred Allen. Isn’t he stunningly handsome, 
Jack?” 

“Poor little cub!” said Jack sympathetic- 
ally, as he hurried forward to meet them. 

After the first confused moment of greeting 
and hand-shaking, question and answer, Alice, 
a plump blonde who still kept much of her 
girlish beauty, turned to the boys. 

“ Can this be my little cousin Rob, grown up 
to this?” she said, as she kissed him, to his 
secret disgust, for Rob scorned kisses except 
from Bess. “And this, I think, is Bessie’s 
adopted boy, Fred, isn’t it? I am so glad to 
have you both here, for I like boys almost as 
well as Bess does.” 

Two days later, Rob sat on the piazza at 
Island Den, painfully fulfilling his promise to 


THEIR SUMMER OUTING, 


231 


write to his mother. Near him, Fred was 
swinging in a hammock, holding beside him 
the two-year-old daughter of the house. Little 
Alice had taken a violent fancy to the boy, who 
amused himself with her by the hour at a time. 
Up-stairs, in the warm August morning, the 
two sisters were lounging and talking ‘‘like 
magpies,” as Jack had said when he left them. 

And this is what Rob wrote ; — 

Dear Mother, — We got here all right. We came 
in a sleeping-car to Clayton, and there we took a boat 
and came here. On the way we had a good time, only 
a woman was mean to Fred. I paid her up, though. I 
will tell you about it some day. I liked the porter on 
our car. I think Fd like to be one. All you have to do 
is to make beds and bring drinks to people and get them 
tables and black their boots, and most everybody gives 
you a dollar. We had ours, supper, I mean, on a table, 
and it was lots of fun. Flave the rats eaten any more 
chickens.*^ Island Den is a lovely house, very large, 
and it is right by the water. There Isn't any other house 
on the island, but on the next there is a great big hotel. 
There are lots of islands. To-morrow cousin Alice 
says I may go fishing at the end of the island. She 
isn’t as nice as cousin Bess, but she is pretty good. I 
‘don’t think Fred likes her much. They have a tennis 
court here and a boat. Has Phil come home.^^ Puck 


232 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. ‘ 


liked the book you sent her. She has wi’itten to tell 
you so. I think it is a good letter for a little girl only 
five years old. Fred is in the hammock with Alice. 
She says, Don’t you fink boys is naughty ? I hope you 
don’t forget the worms for my turtle. He wants five a 
day every day. I think this is all I can think of now. 
Fred sends love, so no more now. 

Your affectionate son, 

Robert Macmillan Atkinson. 

P.S. I forgot to tell you that the box under my table 
has a worm in it that I want to have spin himself up, 
so don’t move it. R. M. A. 

P.S. Number 2. Tell Ted I forgot to give him back 
his bat. It is in the corner of the closet in my room. 

Rob. 

P.S. 3. The best worms are in the bed where the 
verbenas are. R. 

Folded inside this letter was another, written 
in large letters on a grimy sheet of paper.^ 

Marian C. Rogers. 

New York City. 

Dear Aunty 
Bess I want 
to thank you, 


1 A genuine letter, written by a child of five 


THEIB SUMMER OUTING. 


233 


for those nice 
pctires you sent me. 

In the cot oer the hill. 

Lives little Jennie Gill. 

She is but a tot. 

As big as a dot. 

How do you do ? 

I hope that yur doll is well. 
And that your dog tray is well. 


234 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


CHAPTER XIIL 

THE BOYS MEET AN OLD FRIEND. 

“Help! Help! He-e-elp!” 

It was a boy’s voice that rang out across the 
waters of the Saint Lawrence, from a dainty 
little rowboat that was lazily drifting down the 
river. The boy was Rob. He stood up in the 
bow of the boat, looking to the right and left 
for help ; while Fred had dropped to the seat in 
the stern, where he sat, white and still, waiting 
and listening. 

“Nobody yet,” said Rob, trying to speak 
bravely, although his tone was far fi-om cheer- 
ful. “ We shall run across somebody soon.” 

“ Aren’t there some rapids down below 
here? ” asked Fred anxiously. 

“ Ye-es,” admitted Rob. “ But I don’t know 
just where they are. They’re the salt — 
something or other. I’ve heard cousin Alice 
tell about going through them in a steamer. I 
wish I’d studied my geography a little more. 


THE BOYS MEET AN OLD FRIEND. 235 


and then I’d have known how far down they 
are.” 

This was the outcome of Rob’s fishing expe- 
dition. Early that August afternoon, he and 
Fred had gone down to the lower end of the 
island, at some distance from the house. After 
Rob had fished for a half-hour, wdth but poor 
success, he proposed to Fred that they should 
sit in the little green and white boat that was 
drawn up on shore, and he would fish from 
there. Fred fell in with the idea, and the next 
minute the boys were luxuriously lounging in 
the stern, quite unconscious of the fact that 
their motions had rocked the boat until it had 
left the bank and was quietly drifting off 
down towards the Atlantic, with never an oar 
on board. 

If the boys had but known it, their situation 
was far from alarming. It was still quite early, 
so there were yet several hours of daylight be- 
fore them, and they would soon be seen and 
rescued. Still, it was not exactly pleasant to 
be slowly moving away from home, with a very 
uncertain prospect of returning in time for 
dinner. And added to Rob’s alarm for him- 


236 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


self was the uncomfortable feeling that he had 
been the means of getting Fred into a scrape, 
and that cousin Alice would wish she had not 
invited him lo her house. 

“ Boat ahoy ! ” called a clear voice across the 
water. 

Rob looked around and saw a little boat with 
one occupant suddenly turn from the shore, 
where it was creeping along in the shade, and 
come darting towards them, with a long, 
steady sweep of the oars that told of an experi- 
enced rower. He answered the call, and then 
turned to communicate the good news to Fred, 
as the other boat came quickly alongside. 

“ Throw me your painter,” said the young 
man who was in the boat; “I’ll take you in 
tow. But how did you two youngsters ever 
happen to get in such a plight?” 

Rob briefly explained their situation, honor- 
ably taking all the blame for the carelessness. 

“ Well, never mind. You’d better come into 
this boat,” said their rescuer. “ I can row you 
better that way.” 

Rob carefully helped Fred to step from one 
boat to the other, with the assistance of the 


THE BOYS MEET AN OLD FRIEND. 237 


young man, who at once noticed Fred’s infirm- 
ity, and, taking his hand, guided him to his 
seat in the stern, where he gazed at him atten- 
tively, almost curiously, while Rob was seating 
himself by his side. 

“ Now,” went on the stranger, when they 
were settled, and the other boat made fast, 
“ where are you boys trying to go ? And 
where did you come from ? ” 

“ Island Den,” answered Rob. “ Perhaps 
you don’t know where that is, but it’s up by 
the hotel. We’ll be ever so much obliged if 
you will take us back.” 

“ I can do it as well as not,” said their new 
friend. “ I am on my way to the hotel now. 
And I do know Island Den, for I was going to 
call there to-morrow.” 

“Why, do you know cousin Jack?” asked 
Rob in astonishment. 

“If cousin Jack is Mr. Rogers,” said the 
stranger, laughing at Rob’s surprise, “ I know 
him quite well. But how does it happen that 
I have never heard of this small cousin ? ” 

“ Oh, he’s no real cousin. Cousin Alice, 
Mrs. Rogers, is my cousin, and I’ve never been 


238 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


here before. I’m Rob Atkinson, and I came 
here with cousin Bess and Fred, this fellow, 
three days ago.” 

At the mention of these three names, a 
sudden idea seemed to cross the young man’s 
mind, and, looking closely at Fred again, he 
said, — 

“ I thought I had seen Fred before, and now 
I know I have.” 

“Yes,” assented Fred quietly. “I knew 
your voice as soon as you and Bob began talk- 
ing. Aren’t you Mr. Muir ? ” 

“I certainly am,” he answered, “and very 
glad to see you again. I was sure I knew 
your face as soon as I saw you. And this 
is the Rob who tied up the cat’s feet in papers, 
is it?” 

“ Oh, Mr. Muir,” began Rob, blushing at the 
recollection, “ I didn’t ” — 

“ Never mind that,” said Mr. Muir ; “ but 
how odd that Miss Carter should be related to 
Mrs. Rogers, and that I should meet her up 
here ! ” 

“ They’re sisters,” said Rob, “ but cousin 
Alice is lots older. She’s real nice, but she 


THE BOYS MEET AN OLD FRIEND. 239 


isn’t like cousin Bess one bit, and I don’t think 
I like her as well.” 

Fred Ipoked horrified at Rob’s alarming frank- 
ness, but Mr. Muir only laughed, as he said, — 

“ I think perhaps I agree with you, Rob.” 

As the boat drew near the landing, no one 
v/as in sight about the piazza or lawn of Island 
Den. Frank Muir pulled out his watch. 

“ Only half-past three now,” he said, as if to 
himself ; “ still, I think I shall risk a call, even 
if it is rather early, and I am not in full dress. 
Rob, do you think your cousins would see me 
now? As long as I am all here, I think Fll not 
go away without seeing them.” 

“ Oh, I’m sure they will,” said Rob confi- 
dently, as he offered his arm to Fred, and 
they turned towards the house. As they came 
under the windows, he called out loudly, — 

“ Cousin Bess, come on down here ! Fred 
and I were carried off down the river, and I 
want to tell you how we got home again.” 

“ In just a minute, Rob,” answered Bessie’s 
voice from above. 

Rob turned to his new friend with a smile of 
pleased anticipation. 


240 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ I thought I’d give her a surprise party,” he 
explained, “ and not tell her you were here.” 

Now it happened that the day was so warm 
that the sisters, feeling safe from all interrup- 
tion, were lounging in Alice’s room, having a 
long afternoon rest before dressing for dinner. 
At Rob’s summons, Bess hastily twisted up her 
hair, put on a long wrapper of some creamy, 
clinging wool, and thrust her feet into an 
ancient pair of slippers, whose soles and uppers 
were rapidly parting company. Thus attired, 
she ran lightly down the stairs, and out on the 
piazza, exclaiming, — 

“ What have you boys been ” — 

And then stopped aghast, as she caught sight 
of Mr. Muir, who rose to meet her. 

“There! I told you she’d be astonished,” 
commented Rob triumphantly. “ Only think, 
cousin Bess, he found us floating off down the 
river, and he knows cousin Alice and all.” 

A week later, Rob was waked early one 
morning by a sound of splashing water. For a 
moment he lay in that pleasant interval be- 
tween sleeping and waking, dreamily listening 
to the morning twittering of the birds, and 


THE BOYS MEET AN OLD FRIEND. 241 


feeling vaguely that something very pleasant 
was in prospect. But an inquisitive sunbeam 
would shine directly into his eyes, and, as he 
rolled over, he opened them to find that Fred 
was not in- bed. 

“ Why, Fred, where are you ? ” he exclaimed. 

“ Here,” responded a voice from the other 
side of the room. “I haven’t been asleep for 
ever so long, and my face felt so funny and hot 
I got up to put some cold water on it. I don’t 
know what’s the matter, but it feels so queer.” 

Rob raised his head from the pillow, and 
eyed his friend curiously for a moment. 

“ Queer ! ” he said then, “ I should think it 
might! You just ought to see yourself, Fred 
Allen. It’s all red and speckled — I’ll tell 
you, you must have hit some poison yesterday 
morning when we Were out in the woods.” 

“ I wonder if that is it,” said Fred rather 
disconsolately. ‘‘My head aches enough to 
have it almost anything. How long does it 
last. Bob? ” 

“ Oh, two or three weeks,” answered Rob 
encouragingly. “ I’ve been poisoned lots of 
times, and it’s horrid. Pretty soon you’ll be- 


242 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


gin to itch, and then you mustn’t scratch it, or 
it will be worse. Want me to call cousin 
Bess?” 

“ Not now,” said Fred, as he struck the 
repeater that his father had bought for him 
soon after his return from Boston. “Only five 
o’clock, three hours to breakfast time. It 
would be too bad to disturb her.” 

Rob subsided into drowsiness for a few 
moments, but his conscience would not let him 
sleep, when he knew Fred was so uncomfort- 
able. 

“ I’ll tell you, Fred,” he said suddenly, 
“ they told me once, just as I was getting over 
it, that plantain leaves are good for poison. 
You just keep quiet, and I’ll go look for some.” 

And he sprang out of bed and hastily pulled 
on his clothes, without stopping for shoes and 
stockings. Out he ran, barefooted, over the 
dewy lawn, looking here and there for the 
coveted plant. But it was not in vain that 
Jack Rogers had a fine gardener for his summer 
home, and to the water’s edge the smooth, even 
turf was broken by no weed. At last, out by 
the back door, Rob discovered two of the 


THE BOYS MEET AN OLD FRIEND. 24B 


green leaves, and, seizing them in triumph, he 
tiptoed up the stairs, past Bessie’s door, to his 
own room. 

“ I’ve found two, Fred,” he announced. 
“I’ve forgotten just how they said use them, 
but I think it was just to put them on outside. 
You’d better put one on each cheek, for they 
are the worst.” 

“ How shall I make them stay ? ” asked Fred, 
after trying to balance the smooth, slippery 
things on his face. 

Rob pondered a moment. 

“ Wet them,” he suggested. “ That ought to 
make them stick.” 

And he crept into bed again, clothes and all, 
and quite regardless of the mingled dew and 
dust on his small bare feet. 

“I don’t see why I had to go and get 
poisoned,” said Fred, as he thoughtfully rubbed 
his puffy countenance. “ Just the last of the 
time we’re to be here, too.” 

“ Say, Fred,” asked Rob suddenly, “ don’t you 
wish we hadn’t found Mr. Muir that day-? ” 

I should say he found us,” said Fred. 
“ But I like him ever so much ; don’t you ? ” 


244 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Not very well. He’s nice enough, but he’s 
been round all the time. He has been here 
every single day, and cousin Bess is always 
playing tennis or going rowing with him, 
when I want her to do something, and — 
Hullo ! there goes one of your leaves.” And 
Rob carefully replaced it on the reddest part of 
Fred’s face. 

“Well,” said Fred, “she’s always ready to 
do things for me. Mr. Muir is here ever so 
much, I know, and somebody has to entertain 
him ; but Mrs. Rogers is generally busy, so I 
suppose Miss Bess has to do it.” 

“ I don’t think she minds much,” replied 
Rob grimly. “ And last night, you know, I 
told you it was bright moonlight, and they 
were out on the piazza ever so long. After 
you went to sleep, I heard them. I don’t want 
him round in the way, and I am glad we are 
going home next week. And, you know, Fred, 
she always dresses up when he comes.” 

“ I don’t see what that’s for,” answered Fred 
loyally. “ She’s always pretty enough.” 

“Yes, I know,” said Rob loftily, from the 
height of his thirteen years’ experience of life 


THE BOYS MEET AN OLD FKIEND. 245 


and its problems ; “ but women do that kind of 
thing, when they like anybody. Say, how do 
you feel, Fred? ” 

“ Horrid ! ” said Fred tersely. 

“ Didn’t those leaves do any good ? ” inquired 
Rob, as he sat up in bed. 

“ Not yet. Bob. But I wish Miss Bess 
needn’t know, for to-day they’re all going on 
that picnic up the river, and I’m afraid she 
won’t go.” 

“Can’t you?” asked Rob anxiously, for as 
this was to be the crowning festivity of their 
visit, his heart had been set on it, and ever 
since he had discovered Fred’s poison, he 
had been longing, yet fearing, to start the 
subject. 

“ I don’t feel much like it,” said Fred. “ I 
don’t care at all, for picnics aren’t as much fun 
for me as they used to be.” Here Rob gave his 
friend’s hand a consoling squeeze. “But you 
can all go and leave me. Bob. I shall be all 
right, and I want you to go just the same.” 

When Rob entered the breakfast-room, two 
hours later, he said to his cousin, — 

“I wish you’d go up to Fred, a minute.” 


246 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Is anything the matter ? ” asked Bess, who 
was always anxious about her charge. 

“ No, only he doesn’t feel very well,” 
answered Rob, as he followed her out of the 
room. When they were alone in the hall, he 
went on hurriedly, “ He’s poisoned a little, I 
think, but he doesn’t feel like going to-day, and 
he wants us all to go and leave him. You 
make him think we will, and I’ll start with 
you, and then, after you are gone. I’ll come 
back to the house again. I truly don’t care 
about it.” 

Bess read her little cousin’s generous motive, 
and as they went up the stairs, she insisted that 
he should join the frolic, and let her stay ; but 
Rob held firm, and she had to yield, much 
against her will, for she knew how the boy had 
anticipated the day’s fun. 

A striking picture met Bessie’s gaze, as she 
went into the boys’ room. Fred had attempted 
to get up, as usual, but after dressing, he felt 
so ill and miserable, that he had thrown him- 
self down again. His face had swollen until 
his eyes were half closed, and its ruddy hue 
was heightened by its contrast with his white 


THE BOYS MEET AN OLD FRIEND. 247 


flannel blouse and the two bright green leaves 
that Rob had again plastered on his face, just 
before he went down-stairs. The remedy, 
applied in that way, was so original that Rob 
was at once dubbed the doctor,” a name that 
clung to him, to his disgust, till the end of the 
visit. 

It was hard to see the gay party starting off 
in their three boats ; Mr. Muir rowing Bess in 
the first. Jack, Alice, and the children in a 
second, and the third in charge of a servant, 
with a tent and the lunch. Several friends 
from the hotel were to meet them, and among 
them was one little girl, with whom Rob had 
established quite a friendship. Yes, it would 
be great fun, but there was Fred, blind, ill, and 
alone, and the thought of his friend helped him 
to smile bravely and answer decidedly all their 
entreaties to go. 

“I think Fred doesn’t need you,” Bess had 
said. “ I am glad to have you willing to stay, 
Robin, but I am sure he really won’t mind 
being alone.” 

“I’d rather stay,” said Rob, and nothing 
could change his purpose. 


248 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


But as the boats vanished around a point of 
land, Rob’s resolution failed, and for a moment 
his face twitched. Then he started off, and 
tramped twice around the shore of the little 
island, as if running a race with himself. 
That done, he went into Bessie’s room, took a 
book that she was reading aloud to Fred, and 
presented himself before the boy, who, now 
stripped of his foliage, had settled himself for a 
long, dull day. 

“ Got left,” he said briefly, as he seated him- 
self. 

And Fred understood the sacrifice. 


PHIL’S FIGHT. 


249 


CHAPTER XIV. 

Phil’s fight. 

The first of September found the boys all at 
home again, after their summer fun and wan- 
derings. Phil had been visiting his grand- 
mother in Vermont; Sam had gone with his 
family to Newport, where his boyish soul was 
greatly tried by their attempts to live in a truly 
fashionable manner; Bert had been in Western 
New York, visiting some farmer friends, who 
feasted him on milk and honey, and let him go 
fishing and ride the horses bareback, to his 
heart’s content; while poor Ted was left to pine 
at home. But every joy has its accompanying 
sorrow, and glad as they were to be together 
once more, the immediate prospect of school 
was a cause for mourning. To Fred, it seemed 
strange to hear the other five boys bemoaning 
their fate, when he so wished he could go back 
into school again, and he could scarcely realize 
that only lately he had shared their feelings. 


250 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


He needed no urging to return to his pleasant 
lessons with Bess ; but the others, who had so 
many more resources, were by no means recon- 
ciled, and the first Monday in September saw 
them walking slowly, very slowly, towards the 
schoolhouse, with their books in their hands 
and rage in their hearts. 

All of us who have been boys know how 
hard it is to leave all the frolics and idle enjoy- 
ment of the long vacation, to sit for five hours 
a day in a close room, amid the buzz of voices, 
and, with warm, sticky hands, turn over the 
leaves of the books that never before seemed 
half so prosy and dull — since last September. 
How all the out-door sounds that come in at the 
open windows, the notes of the birds, the hum 
of the passing voices, the distant bark of our 
own Nep or Rover, even the whir of a mowing 
machine in the next yard, tempt us to throw 
aside the lessons, and, braving the whipping 
that we know must certainly follow, to run out 
at the door, down the stairs, and into the clear 
yellow sunshine that was surely created for 
boys to enjoy themselves in ! And how all the 
memories of the summer fun will come into our 


PHIL’S FIGHT. 


251 


minds, replacing the War of 1812 with a boat- 
race, and making the puzzling mysteries of the 
binomial theorem give place to an imaginary 
brook and a fish-line ! Well, well ! It is only 
what comes to us grown-up children, when we 
have taken a day, or a week, or a month from 
our business, and then have to settle down to 
work again. 

One afternoon about two weeks after the 
opening of school, as Bess was coming in from 
some errands, she found five excited boys 
sitting on her front steps, eagerly waiting to 
see her. As she approached, she heard Rob 
saying, — 

“ I didn’t think Phil had so much grit. If it 
had been you, Bert, or Sam ” — 

“ Well, my boys,” said Bess, as she sat down 
in the midst of them, and took off her hat, 
“ what is the occasion of this call ? You look 
as if something were the matter.” 

“ Matter enough ! ” said Sam. “ That Miss 
Witherspoon hadn’t ought to teach school any- 
way ! ” And he scowled darkly on the uncon- 
scious Fred, who chanced to be in range of his 
glance. 


252 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Sam ! Sam ! ” remonstrated Bess. 

“ It’s a fact, Miss Bessie,” said Bert. “ She’s 
too old and cross for anything ! J ust think, 
she’s going to keep Phil after school and whip 
him!” 

“ Yes,” put in Ted, “ and it isn’t fair.” 

‘‘Phil!” said Bess incredulously. “You 
don’t mean that Phil Cameron has to be 
whipped in school ! What has he done ? ” 

“ He hasn’t,” said Rob. “ I don’t think he 
did it at all, only she doesn’t know who did, 
and so she is going to whip Phil.” 

“ Jiminy ! ” said Ted, rolling off the steps to 
the ground, in his excitement. “ I’d like to go 
for her ! It’s a burning shame to whip Phil. 
There isn’t a better lad in all the school, and 
she likes him herself, when she isn’t mad.” 

From these remarks, however emphatic and 
lucid they might seem to the boys who were in 
the secret, Bess had gathered but the one fact, 
that Phil was in disgrace at school and was to 
be whipped. To5^her mind, corporal punish 
ment in schools \Ahis degrading and brutalizing, 
and the idea of its being employed on a re- 
fined, gentle boy, like Phil, shocked her and 


PHIL’S FIGHT. 


253 


roused her indignation, for she knew the lad 
well enough to be sure that he had done noth- 
ing to justify such extreme measures. 

“ I’ll tell you about it, Miss Bess,” said Bert. 
“ You see, Phil has been feeling funny all day, 
and when we marched round to get the dumb- 
bells, he just turned his toes square in, and 
waddled along, so,” and Bert illustrated the 
proceeding for Bessie’s benefit. “We fellows 
all laughed, and that rattled Miss Witherspoon 
awfully, and started her down on him. I guess 
she didn’t feel just right to-day, perhaps. 
Well, by and by, when we were studying, all 
of a sudden somebody snapped a great agate up 
the aisle, right bang against Miss Witherspoon’s 
desk. It astonished her and made her jump, 
but she picked it up and only said, ‘If this 
happens again, I shall whip the boy that does 
it,’ and then went on with her class. Pretty 
soon another one went rolling along, but she 
wasn’t quick enough to catch the boy, so she 
began asking us all if we knew who did it. 
We were all the other side'^of the room but 
Phil, and he was the only one in the room that 
said he did know. Miss Witherspoon asked 


254 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


him who it was, but he just shut his mouth. 
Then she asked if he did it, and he just said 
‘ No.’ And then she told him she’d whip him 
unless he told, but he just wouldn’t, and I say, 
Good for him ! ” 

“ Hurrah for Phil ! ” said Ted, turning a 
somersault on the turf. 

Bess looked perplexed. She knew Miss 
Witherspoon too well, a veteran teacher who 
had grown hard in the service, a nervous old 
maid who ruled her children with an iron rod, 
and then went home and wept bitter tears be- 
cause they did not love her, conscientious to a 
fault, and at heart anxious for the good of her 
pupils, although no consideration would make 
her take back a hasty word, or lighten a punish- 
ment ordered in a moment of anger. This was 
the first time that one of the I. I.’s had been 
publicly punished in this way, and each one of 
them felt the disgrace as keenly as if it had 
been his own, while with one consent they had 
come to Bess for advice and consolation. 

“ There comes Phil, now ! ” exclaimed Rob. 

Bess gave one look at the small figure com- 
ing along the street, with his hat pulled down 


PHIL’S FIGHT. 


255 


over his face, and his hands plunged deep into 
his pockets. 

“ I don’t believe he will feel like seeing you 
hoys now,” said she. “ I want to have a little 
talk with him, and you had better keep away.” 

The boys obediently retired through the back 
gate before Phil had a chance to see them. He 
was going directly past the house, when Bess 
called him, — 

“ Come in a minute, Phil.” 

The hoy stopped doubtfully for a moment. 
Then he turned and came up to where she stood 
waiting. Taking his hand, all red and puffed 
' up with the blows, she led him into the house. 

“ Now, Phil, my boy,” she said gently, “ tell 
me all about it.” 

Phil’s face grew red, and his lips twitched. 
Then he answered abruptly, — 

“ There’s not much to tell, only Miss 
Witherspoon whipped me because I wouldn’t 
tell on one of the boys, and she isn’t going to 
let me go back to school until I tell who did it. 
She’ll just have to wait, then, that’s all.” 

Bess looked anxious. This was worse than 
she expected. 


256 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ But, Phil,” she said, “ isn’t the boy manly 
enough to confess, rather than see you suffer 
for him ? ” 

Phil shook his head. 

“ No, he’ll never tell.” 

“And you really had nothing to do with 
it?” 

The boy had been sitting with his elbows on 
his knees and his chin in his hands, gazing at 
the floor ; but at this question he threw up his 
head proudly, and looked straight into Bessie’s 
eyes. 

“ Miss Bess,” he said simply, “ I told Miss 
Witherspoon I didn’t, upon my honor, and did 
you ever know me to lie ? ” 

“ No, Phil, I never did.” 

“ I think she might believe me, too, then,” 
muttered Phil, as he settled back after his 
momentary flash. “ She thinks I did it, and 
won’t believe me when I say I didn’t. Oh, how 
I hate to tell my father ! ” And he started up 
to go. 

“ Will you tell me, Phil, who it was? ” asked 
Bess, as she followed him to the door. 

Phil shook his head again. 


PHIL’S FIGHT. 


257 


“Bat I might be able to straighten the 
matter out. You mustn’t lose your school.” 

“ I’ll lose it always, rather than be a tell- 
tale.” 

The boys were loud in their exclamations 
when they heard, the next morning, that Phil 
was suspended from school. One after another, 
they coaxed, wheedled, begged, and stormed by 
turns, but Phil could not be induced to tell 
them his secret, although one word would have 
put him back in his classes again. At Bessie’s 
suggestion, Fred urged Phil to tell him, as long 
as he was outside the school set, but it did no 
more good than Bessie’s call did on Miss 
Witherspoon. 

“ Yes, I am sorry,” that worthy woman con- 
fessed; “I was tired that day, and I think I 
was hasty, for I don’t think Philip is a bad boy 
at heart. It was a little thing to punish so 
severely, but, if I give in now, I shall lose all 
my control for the future. Let the boys once 
feel that they can make me yield, and I might 
as well give up teaching.” 

Poor Miss Witherspoon ! After all her years 
of teaching, she had yet to learn how quickly 


258 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


all pupils respect a teacher who can make her- 
self as a little child in acknowledging a mistake, 
and making what reparation for it she can. 

But a week had passed, and Phil was as 
obstinate on one side as his teacher was deter- 
mined on the other. In vain his father and 
mother urged and commanded. Angry and 
smarting from the injustice done him, this 
seemed a different Phil from the pleasant, 
happy-go-lucky lad they used to know. At 
length, Mr. and Mrs. Cameron, at their wits’ 
end, begged Bessie to take Phil in hand. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” Bess said to her mother, on the 
evening after this remarkable request. “ I do 
wish people would discipline their own chil- 
dren. The idea of expecting me to succeed 
where they fail I It is too absurd.” 

However, Phil was invited to dine at the 
Carters’, whither he went somewhat suspi- 
ciously, for he regarded this as only a new plot 
to entrap him into telling what he had made up 
his mind to keep to himself. But Bess was 
wily. Dinner-time came and went, and no 
word of the dreaded subject, until Phil began 
to think that his had been a false alarm. But by 


PHIL’S FIGHT. 


259 


and by Mrs. Carter had gone out of the room, 
and Fred went away in search of Fuzz. Then 
Bess moved a chair up before the open fire, and 
pulled a low stool to its side. 

“ Come, Phil, I want to talk.” 

Phil obediently settled himself at Bessie’s 
feet, and prepared for the Avorst ; but Bess only 
began to talk about the boys and the club. 
The child was just congratulating himself on 
his continued escape, when she suddenly 
asked, — 

“ What do you think I have started the club 
for?” 

“ I don’t know. Fun, I suppose.” 

“ Partly for that, but, still more, to improve 
us in all sorts of ways. And yet I find I have 
failed to teach you the very first lesson of all.” 

“What’s that?” asked Phil curiously. 

“ Obedience, Phil. Your father and mother 
wish you to tell Miss Witherspoon who threw 
that marble, and you refuse to obey them.” 

“ Pm not going to tell tales,” said Phil 
sullenly. 

Bess rested her hand lightly on the smooth 
brown head. 


260 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Phil, the first duty you have now is to 
be guided by your father and mother. They 
know so much better than you what is right for 
you. I can see how hard it is for you to give 
in, in this case. But Avhile a sneak and a tell- 
tale is the meanest of boys, you would not be 
either, under these circumstances.” 

“Yes, I should,” answered Phil. “It’s a 
mean thing to do, and the fellows would all be 
down on me.” 

“ Suppose they were ? ” replied Bess. “ Is it 
your parents or ‘ the fellows ’ that you want to 
please ? I will tell you what one trouble is, 
Phil ; you have read too many stories where 
the hero nobly bears the punishment for another 
boy, and is only cleared on the last half-page. 
Isn’t it true ? ” 

Phil laughed, in spite of himself. 

“ That would be all very well if you had no 
duty to any one but yourself ; but, back of that, 
you owe obedience to your father and mother, 
and if they think that you ought to go back 
into school, that is what you should do. You 
are too young, my boy, to decide these things 
for yourself. And it is because we have so 


PHIL’S FIGHT. 


261 


many liopes and plans for your future that we 
want you to do right now, every day. It will 
be hard for you to go back, but, even if it is, 
we all want you to go. Will you promise ” 
Phil’s face had softened at her last words. 

“I won’t promise. Miss Bess, for then 1 
should have to, anyway, and I’m not sure yet, 
till I think it all over. I’ll tell you to- 
morrow.” 

Bess patted his shoulder approvingly, for 
this was a concession at least. Then she went 
on, after a little pause, — 

‘‘Phil, dear, ever so long ago, Fred and I 
took for our motto a verse from your All 
Saints’ Hymn, — ‘ Oh, may thy soldiers,’ and 
we are trying to win our ‘ victor’s crown.’ 
Why not take it for your motto, too? You 
boys all have a good deal of the stuff that 
makes heroes and fighters. Just now you are 
forgetting that a soldier’s first duty is to obey his 
superior officer, and that any disobedience, even 
a slight one, may ruin the whole campaign. 
Will this small soldier join our company, and 
fight with us, ‘ faithful, true, and bold ’ ? ” 

“ Ye-es, I s’pose so.” 


262 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Even when you remember that your first 
step must be to yield your idea of right to your 
father’s ? ” 

“ Ye-e-es.” 

It was a long-drawn yes, and it told of a 
whole battle, and a victory. As Bessie bent 
over the boy for a moment, she saw that the 
lashes over the gray eyes were a little damp, 
and the lips were quivering. But there was no 
time for Phil to have so much as a tear, for 
just then the door opened and Ted rushed in, 
capering like a mad creature, while Fred stood 
beaming in the doorway. 

“ Why, Ted, what is the matter ? ” exclaimed 
Bess in wonder, as Ted rushed up to Phil, 
shook both hands furiously, and then backed 
out into the middle of the room, where he 
executed a sort of clog-dance, to the rage of 
Fuzz, who barked himself hoarse, from the 
shelter of his basket, whither he had retired for 
safety. 

“ Jack Bradley fired that marble ! ” said Ted, 
interrupting his antics for a moment, and then 
resuming them again more vehemently than 
ever, while Fuzz leaped from his basket and 


PHIL’S FIGHT. 


263 


rushed distractedlj?- this way and that, adding 
his voice to the general confusion. 

“ How do you know ? ” asked Bess, although 
a glance at Phil’s face was enough to assure 
her that Ted’s statement was true. 

“ I’ll tell you,” said Ted, composing himself 
as well as he could on such short notice, while 
Fred deliberately seated himself in the place 
lately vacated by Phil. 

“ You see,” he began, ‘‘ we boys have all 
been mad about Phil’s scrape, and we have just 
formed a regular league of detectives. This is 
the way I went to work. That marble came 
out of Phil’s aisle. Well, it came up out of it 
sort of cornerwise, and bounced off the other 
way. That showed the direction, so I was 
pretty sure which side of the aisle it started 
from. Then, half-way down the aisle is where 
that little milksop of a Jimmy Harris sits. He 
never could tell a lie, just like Washington — 
don’t believe he knows enough ! But he’s 
always looking round, and would have seen 
who fired it, if it had been anybody in front 
of him, so I made up my mind ’twasn’t. 
Then I knew it must have been one of three 


264 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


boys, so I went to work. I kind of suspected 
’twas Jack; he’s a mean lad, anyhow. So 
yesterday I began to talk about Phil to him, 
and he was very talky, said ’twas a mean 
shame and all that, but he never once looked 
me in the eye. Thinks I, ‘ I don’t believe you.’ 
Then I asked Miss Witherspoon to let me see 
the agate. It was a queer one, and after school 
I went the rounds of the stores, looking for 
some like it. I found a whole lot at Smith’s, 
and they told me they had just come in new 
last week. I said I thought I would take one 
or two, and get the start of all the boys ; but 
the clerk said I was too late, for Jack had 
bought some the other day. That clinched the 
matter, for they were different from any I ever 
saw. I don’t believe Jack knew he had that 
one in his hand, or he wouldn’t have fired it. 
He’s too stingy. Well, to-night after school, I 
asked him if he wanted to swap marbles. He 
looked rather uncomfortable, and said he hadn’t 
had any since last spring. I asked him how 
about the ones he had just bought of Smith. 
He just turned all colors, and begged me not to 
tell, for he’d get a whipping, and another at 


PHIL’S FIGHT. 


265 


home. Great baby ! But I didn’t tell. I just 
gjipped my arms round him, and hauled him up 
to Miss Witherspoon, and told her to ask him 
about Phil and the marbles ; that’s all. 1 had 
to carry the milk, so I couldn’t go to Phil’s till 
just now, and, when I found he was here, 1 came 
right after him. And he can go into school in 
the morning and — Oh, jiminy — scratch ! ” 
There was a crash. Ted, always in per- 
petual motion, in his present excitement had 
seated himself sideways in a low rocking-chair, 
and with one hand on the back, the other 
clutching the edge of the seat, he had been 
rocking furiously to and fro, till at this point 
he went a little too far, and, losing his balance, 
he landed in an ignominious pile on the floor, 
amid the shouts of the other two boys. 


266 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


CHAPTER XV. 

“GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN.” 

It was one of Fred’s blue days; for, though 
they came more rarely, there were often times 
when his trouble seemed more than he could 
endure, and he was either irritable and moody, 
or so sad and despondent that even Bess was in 
despair over him. For a long time he had 
been brave and bright, but now the reaction 
seemed to have set in, and on this particular 
day he was harder to manage than usual. 
The other boys had all gone away to a ball 
game, to which they had tried in vain to induce 
Fred to accompany them. Of late he had gone 
about with them to many of their frolics, but 
to-day he had refused to join them. He was 
lying in a hammock out in the warm midday 
sun of late September, and feeling at war with 
all the world but Fuzz, who lay curled up 
across his breast with his head laid on the boy’s 
shoulder, occasionally nestling about a little, or 


GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN.” 267 


giving a lazy growl whenever Fred ventured to 
move. 

Out on the lawn, Bess and Mr. Muir were 
playing tennis, — for it was strange how often 
the young man had occasion to spend two or 
three days with Mr. Washburn. Fred could 
hear the thud of their balls against the rackets, 
and listened idly to their voices ; but although 
his admiration for Mr. Muir amounted to a sort 
of hero-worship, he was too cross and dismal to- 
day to follow him about, as he usually did, or to 
respond to his pleasant, merry greeting. Every- 
body was having a good time but just himself, 
and he couldn’t do anything at all. Every- 
thing was going wrong to-day. Miss Bess was 
too busy to read to him, just because that 
bothering old Mr. Muir was always round, — 
and, for a moment, Fred almost hated his idol. 
If he had only known that he was going to be 
here, he would have gone with the boys. He 
wished he had. 

Fred’s meditations had just reached this point, 
when he heard Rob’s voice calling from the 
street, — 

“Cousin Bess, where’s Fred?” 


268 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“In the hammock, Rob. What sends you 
home so early ? ” 

“ Early ! ” thought Rob mischievously, “ I’ve 
been gone nearly three hours and a half. Mr. 
Muir must be exciting, if time goes so fast with 
him round.” But all he said was, — 

“I want him to come down to Bert’s. We 
beat those fellows all to pieces, and we’re going 
to have a grand bonfire to celebrate. Can he 
go?” 

“ Yes,” said Bess rather doubtfully, “ but you 
must take care of him, Robin. Remember, he 
can’t go into it just as you do ; and be careful 
your own self. We don’t want any burned 
bo3^s on our hands.” And she returned to her 
game, amidst Rob’s fervent assurances that all 
would be well. 

This time Fred was induced to go. He 
rolled out of the hammock, and the two boys, 
arm in arm, tramped off down the street 
towards the house of Dr. Walsh. At the 
extreme rear of the large grounds, they found 
Phil, Ted, Sam, and Bert, with the rest of the 
victorious nine, busily piling up a huge mound 
of brush. To any one glancing about the well- 


GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN/ 


269 


kept lawn, it was a question where the lads had 
collected their materials ; but a careful gleaning 
had gathered in a rich harvest of light rubbish 
that would do a smoky honor to their victory 
of the morning. 

Rob and Fred were greeted with enthusiastic 
shouts as they appeared, for Fred was rapidly 
regaining his old place among his boy friends. 
Several grimy hands were extended to help him 
to a post of honor, where he could be in the 
very midst of the fun, and, with a boyish 
chivalry, the lads often paused from their work 
to talk a moment with him, that he might not 
feel left out of their frolic. But, even by this 
time, Fred had not quite returned to his usual 
good humor, and as he loitered about, listening 
to the gay shouts of his friends, he was in- 
wardly chafing at the infirmity that kept him 
apart from them, and, filled with an impulse to 
get away from them, he turned slowly, and 
walked towards the house. 

“Where going, Fred?” he heard Rob call 
after him. 

“ Only just to the hammock,” he answered, 
for he had become quite familiar with the 


2T0 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


Walsh grounds, as it was a favorite meeting- 
place with the boys. 

“ Fred’s blue to-day,” remarked Rob to Bert, 
who stood near him for a moment. 

“ Poor old lad ! I don’t wonder,” answered 
Bert, as he watched the retreating figure. “ I 
wonder if somebody’d better go with him.” 

“ I don’t believe so,” said Rob. “ When he’s 
like this, he’d rather be let alone than anything 
else ; and he won’t try to go beyond the ham- 
mock. I don’t think I’ll go.” 

Poor Rob ! How often and how long he 
regretted this decision ! 

The bonfire was ready and Ted applied the 
match. Instantly the fiame began to crackle 
through the dry twigs, and soon it mounted in 
a roaring cone high above the pile of brush, dry 
as tinder, for no rain had fallen for more than a 
week. The boys joined hands and frisked 
about the fire ; then, arming themselves with 
long poles, they thrust them into the midst of 
the blaze, stirring up a cloud of tiny sparks and 
larger fiakes of fire that floated up and away in 
the gentle September breeze. Of course it was 
warm exercise, but what boy minds that, when 


GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN/^ 271 


it is a question of some frolic ? Let him have 
to work, and then the temperature at once be- 
comes an important question, and there is 
danger of getting overheated ; but with play, 
no such slight matters are taken into considera^ 
tion. Although the bonfire was dying down, 
the fun was still at its height. The boys were 
poking the embers up into a pile, preparatory 
to the prudent sport of jumping over them, 
when Ted suddenly exclaimed, — 

“ Bert ! Boys ! The little barn ! ” 

Near the bonfire, much, very much nearer 
than they realized, stood a small building, half 
barn, half shed, that for years had been used for 
storing hay. It was a favorite place with the 
boys on rainy days, and they never wearied of 
playing hide and seek through a maze of 
elaborately constructed tunnels, or of lying on 
their backs in the sweet-smelling mows, dis- 
cussing school, club, baseball, and other vital 
interests. Here Fred had held a sort of court 
the first time he had joined the boys in the old 
way ; and here he used often to be with them, 
during the long weeks of the summer. But 
this was all over now, as far as the little barn 


272 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


was concerned, for some treacherous spark, fly- 
ing farther than its companions, had blown in 
at the wide-open door and lighted on the hay, 
where it had lain smouldering until it had 
gained strength and was ready to burst forth in 
the long tongue of flame that had met Ted’s 
eye. Already the hay was blazing merrily and 
sending up a thin banner of smoke, which soon 
became a dense yellowish cloud that hid the 
sun and the sky. It was too far from any other 
building to cause any danger of its spreading, 
so the boys felt that the worst had come. But 
this was bad enough, for it had gone too far, 
when Ted discovered it, to make it possible to 
put the fire out. While two or three of them 
raced up to the house to give the alarm, the 
others stood by, with their boyish hearts sink- 
ing as they thought of the damage done by 
their careless fun, and waited anxiously for Dr. 
Walsh to come, hoping, yet fearing, to have 
him know of the accident. The barn was well 
hidden from the house by the trees, and at 
some little distance. Would he ever come? 

“ What do you s’pose he’ll do to us ? ” asked 
Phil remorsefully. 


GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN.” 273 


“ I don’t know,” said Rob anxiously. 
“ Something bad, I’m afraid. I do hope he 
won’t have us arrested or anything.” 

“ How could we be such dummies as not to 
look out for all this hay ! ” said Ted. “ Hark ! 
What’s that?” 

“ What’s what ? ” asked Phil. 

“ That noise. It sounded as if some one was 
calling. Listen ! ” said Ted excitedly. 

The boys did listen. In a moment the cry 
was repeated, — 

“ Help ! Boys ! Rob ! ” 

The boys looked at each other in consterna- 
tion, while the color faded from their cheeks 
and lips, leaving them ashy white. 

“ Boys,” said Sam, “ that’s Fred ! He’s in 
there ! ” 

“ What shall we do ? ” 

This exclamation burst from Ted and Phil, 
as another shriek came ringing from the barn, 
above the rush and roar of the flames. Rob 
had dropped on the ground with his face in his 
hands, unable to look, or even to think of any- 
thing but Bessie’s charge, “ Take care of him.” 

“ Do ! ” answered Sam calmly. “ There ain’t 


274 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


but one thing to do, — get him out. You call 
back to him that I’m coming ; I want to save 
my breath. I’ll need it all,” he added, as he 
gazed at the seething flame. 

Rob sprang up and caught him. 

“Sam, you can’t ! You mustn’t! You’ll be 
burned. I was the one to blame, for I told 
cousin Bess I’d see to him. Let me go I ” 

Sam shook him off. 

“No, Bob. You’re not strong enough to 
bring him out; and besides — you’re the only 
one at home, and if — But I’ll be all right. I 
can’t let him be burned.” 

“ Wait, Sam ! Somebody else will come in a 
minute,” said Phil. 

“ There ain’t any minutes to waste,” said 
Sam bravely. “ Don’t you worry. I’ll be all 
right.” 

Followed by the awe-stricken boys, who, 
seeing that nothing could change his purpose, 
silently submitted to his will, he went quickly 
to the farther end of the barn, where the fire 
was only just appearing. Hastily pulling off 
his light summer coat, he threw it over his 
head, and, guided by Fred’s cries, plunged into 


GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN.' 


275 


the midst of the smoke and flame, just as Dr. 
Walsh came running down from the house, 
followed by Bert and the other boys. 

“ I wonder what all that smoke can be,” 
Bess had said to Mr. Muir. “I do hope the 
boys are not in any trouble with their bonfire. 
I wish I hadn’t let Fred go.” 

“He will be safe with Rob,” answered Mr. 
Muir lightly, as he gathered up the balls on his 
racket. “ What’s that ! Somebody crying 
fire?” 

They listened a moment. Then Bess threw 
down her racket excitedly. 

“ Mr. Muir, come quick, please. I think it 
is at the doctor’s, and I feel so worried about 
Fred!” 

Frank Muir could scarcely keep up with her 
as she hurried along the street, into the doctor’s 
grounds, and to the burning barn. They 
reached it at the very moment when Sam, half 
carrying, half dragging Fred, who had lost 
consciousness, and hung a limp, dead weight, 
staggered out into the open air, and fell 
motionless at his side, amid the cheer and tears 
of the large crowd that had gathered. 


276 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


They said that he must have breathed the 
smoke, for there was no mark of the fire upon 
him. His lips were set firmly together, as with 
the nerving himself for some mighty, heroic 
task ; and the coat he had worn to protect him- 
self was closely folded about Fred’s head. 
Lovingly and reverently they raised him, and 
bore him into the house, where they laid him 
on Bert’s bed, wrapped in the dreamless sleep 
that could have but one awakening. 

Frank Muir had lifted Fred in his strong 
aims, and turned to Bess inquiringly. 

“ Home, please ; that is, if you can carry 
him there. It is so near, and Mrs. Walsh has 
so much now. Oh, Frank, am I to blame?” 
And she shuddered at the thought. 

“ To blame ; no ! Of course not. But I can 
carry him easily, and we shall need you, so you 
mustn’t fail us.” And he looked at her 
anxiously, for she seemed about to faint. 

It was some time before Fred was fully 
restored to consciousness, and then, while Bess 
and her mother dressed his slightly burned face 
and hands, Frank Muir sat by his side, trying 
to cheer and calm him. It was a long after- 


GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN.” 277 


noon, for Fred was feverish and nervous, and 
needed all their care. They let him talk but 
little, but he told them how he had left the 
boys, intending to go to the hammock, but, 
thinking of the hay, he had gone into the barn 
instead, where he had fallen asleep, and waked 
to find the air around him filled with smoke. 
After that, he remembered nothing more until 
he waked in his own bed, with them all around 
him. Then he was ordered not to talk, so he 
lay, sleeping but little, till far into the night, 
while Bess anxiously hovered over him, suffer- 
ing even more than he did from the burns 
which she fancied had been caused by some 
neglect on her part. 

Late the next day, he was so much better 
that they thought it safe to tell him about Sam. 
The boy’s grief was beyond any words, but, 
clinging to Bess, he sobbed bitterly, as he 
learned the sacrifice so nobly made for him. 
As he gradually became calmer, Bess said to 
him gently, as she stroked his hair, — 

“ Fred, my dear boy, Sam has willingly given 
his life for yours, and nothing can change that 
now. He is at rest and happy. There is only 


278 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


one thing you can do, — live each day so that, 
as he looks down on you and watches you, he 
can be happier still in feeling that the life he 
saved was the life of a true, noble boy, who 
deserves the sacrifice.” 

The story of the fire had been told on all 
sides, and early the next afternoon the great 
house on the hill was full, and many were 
gathered outside on the lawn, for honest, manly 
Sam had, unknown to himself, many a friend ; 
and now young and old, boys and girls, men 
and women, had gathered to do honor to the 
young soldier who had gained “ the victor’s 
crown of gold.” 

The deep hush of sadness as Mr. Washburn 
slowly began, “ I. am the resurrection and 
the life,” was only broken, now and then, by a 
sob from some one who suddenly realized what 
a large place the quiet boy had filled in all 
their hearts. Fred had insisted on being 
present, and with Bess sat near the family, 
looking sadly worn from his burns, and his 
sorrow for the friend who had saved him. 

But the prayer was ended, and on the quiet 
that followed rose the sweet boy voices, for 


“GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN.” 279 


Sam’s motlier had asked the four friends to 
sing for her son, as they had so often sung 
with him. Clearly and firmly they began, — 

“ Lead, kindly Light, amid tlT encircling gloom, 
Lead thou me on.” 

But one after another the young voices broke 
and were hushed, until Rob was singing alone, 
unconscious of the people about him, only see- 
ing the dark outline in the darkened room; 
forgetful of his hearers, only remembering the 
good friend and companion in the happy days 
they had passed together. Never had his voice 
been sweeter or clearer, until the close of the 
second verse. Then it was impossible for him 
to go on. It all seemed like some horrible 
nightmare, from which he must wake, to find 
Sam alive and well. He tried to go on with 
the hymn, but his voice failed utterly. For a 
moment there was a hush of expectation, a 
hush that seemed endless to the boy ; and 
then, from behind him, in a clear, mellow 
tenor, low and gentle, yet so distinct that not 
a syllable was lost, came the words of the 
last verse, — 


280 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ So long Thy power has led me, surely still 
’Twill lead me on, 

O’er moor and fen, o’er erag and torrent, till 
The nio:ht is «rone. 

And with the morn, those angel faees smile. 

Which I have loved long since — and lost awhile.” 

It was all over, “earth to earth, ashes to 
ashes, dust to dust,” but as the five lads, the 
half-dozen now no longer, sat on the Carters’ 
piazza in the gathering twilight, sorrowfully 
talking over the events of the last three days, 
they felt that no one of them had made a 
braver fight to win the victor’s crown. And as 
the stars came out one by one, and smiled down 
on the boys as they sat there, smiled as they 
had so often done before, only more sadly to- 
night, they felt that Sam, too, was looking down 
upon them from above, and each one resolved, 
in his boyish heart, to live from day to day, so 
that at last he should he worthy to meet Sam 
once more in the happy future world. 


A LITERARY EVENING. 


281 


CHAPTER XVI. 

A LITERARY EVENING. 

The I. I. Club 

Requests 3^011 to be present on Saturda}" evening, Octo- 
ber 29th, at its semi-annnal meeting. Essays will be 
read, to show the work of the club. 

These invitations were scattered broadcast 
among fathers and mothers, uncles and aunts, 
and Saturday evening was eagerly awaited by 
the young clubbists. 

It was now more than four weeks since Sam 
had left the boys, and although they missed 
him sadly and mourned for him most sincerely, 
there seemed to Bess no reason that the five 
lads should give up their long-talked-of festi- 
val. She was sure that Sam, unselfish as he 
had always shown himself, would not wish it 
otherwise. His memory had become a tender 
centre for all their highest, noblest thoughts 
and talks, and the five rarely came together 
without speaking of him, sometimes laughing 


282 


HAI.F A DOZEN BOYS. 


quietly at the funny adventures they had had 
w'ith him, but more often dwelling with a boyish 
pride on the courage and manliness that showed 
in his every act. It was always, “ Sam is,” 
Sam does ; ” never the dreadful “ was ” and 
“ did,” that past tense which seems to separate 
our friends from us by an impassable barrier. 
Bess encouraged this feeling of nearness, for 
she loved to have the boys feel that their friend 
had only left them as if for a little journey, 
and they would soon meet him again. It was 
the first time they had learned the real meaning 
of death, and it had been a terrible blow to 
them all, but the tender, loving memory, and 
the thought that their friend was always watch- 
ing over them, had a sweet, helpful influence 
on their young lives. No one had been asked 
to fill his place in the club, but instead, when 
the lads were discussing the details of their 
open meeting, Sam’s tastes and wishes were 
followed as closely as if he had been still 
among them. 

Saturda}^ evening found the Carter’ large 
rooms well filled, and at exactly half-past seven 
Bess, followed by the five boys, took her place 


A LITERARY EVENING. 


283 


on a small raised platform at the end of the 
room. Each one wore a white carnation in his 
buttonhole, from which hung the badge of 
membership, a silver interrogation point, Fred’s 
gift. Four of them were armed with impres- 
sive rolls of manuscript, while Fred carried a 
large, loose bunch of roses that, with Bessie’s 
help, he placed before a picture of Sam that 
stood on a small table in their midst. 

Then, in a few words, Bess reminded the 
audience of the object and work of the club. 
Of what it had done in the past six months, 
they could judge by the evening’s entertain- 
ment ; the secret of what its members would do 
in the future lay hidden in the boys themselves. 
She added a few tender words, referring to the 
member who had left them, and then, after 
saying that the essays were the work of the 
boys, and that she had not even seen them, she 
introduced as the first reader. Master Philip 
Cameron. 

Phil rose with a rather sheepish giggle, 
hastily smoothed down his scalp-lock that would 
stand aggressively erect, bowed to the audience, 
and announced his subject. 


284 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ GOLD. 

“Gold is a yellow metal that we are all 
familiar with, though not as much so as we 
should like to be. It is used for money and 
for ornaments, and is very precious. It is 
found in a great many places in the world, and 
a great deal ilft a place, but people always wish 
there was some more of it. The most interest- 
ing place to us is in California. It was dis- 
covered there in 1848 by three men, partly 
Mormons. It was their daughter that found it 
and picked it up and said what a pretty stone. 
They tried to keep it a secret, but of course 
the}^ couldn't, -and pretty soon everybody was 
going to California. 

“ At least, not everybody;” -explained Phil 
conscientiously, as he looked up • from his 
paper, “but ever and ever so many people.” 
Then he resumed, — 

“ The State was soon full of people, and it 
was admitted to the Union. 

“ There are a good many ways of gold- 
mining. Sometimes the mines are in veins in 
the hard rock. Then the miners bore down 


A LITERARY EVENING. 


285 


to them and dig out the rock, and break it up 
fine to get out the gold, just as they do silver. 
Another way is to find it in the loose sand in 
the bottoms of rocks and in gravel. When the 
miners first went out, they used to take a little 
gravel in a dish with some water, and shake it 
hard, so a little would slop over each time. 
The gold Avas heavy, and would sink and stay 
after all the rest had gone. They called it 
‘ panning out well ’ when there was a lot left in 
the dish. Now they turn brooks to run over a 
row of troughs with holes scooped out in the 
bottoms, and the gold drops into the holes, and 
the other stone goes on. Then there is hydrau- 
lic mining. They turn a stream of water 
aofainst the side of a hill and wash it all down 
to start with, and then they put it through the 
troughs just the same way. 

“ Gold is soft when it is pure, so they have 
to mix it with other metals to keep it from 
wearing out. They call that alloying it. We 
tell how pure gold is by the number of carats. 
Twenty-four is pure, but eighteen is very fine. 

“ I have only one thing more to say. When 
you say a person has ‘ sand,’ or courage, that 


286 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


comes from gold-mining. When a miner saw 
a certain kind of sand, he always knew that 
gold was mixed with it underneath.” 

And Phil sat down, amidst a hum of 
applause. 

“Next comes Master Herbert Walsh,” an- 
nounced Bess, from her chair of office. 

“ We had an evening of the old Greek 
myths,” began Bert, by way of introduction, 
“ and I thought I’d take for my subject 

“ THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR. 

“Ever and ever so long ago there was a 
king of Athens that had a son named Theseus. 
This son didn’t live with him, but with his 
mother, somewhere else ; but when he was 
strong enough he lifted up a great rock, and 
found under it a sword with a gilt handle, and 
a pair of shoes. They had been left there for 
him by his father till he was strong enough to 
pry up the rock and get them. So he put them . 
on, and started for Athens. Pie had a good 
many adventures on the way, with robbers, and 
a bed that opened and shut, and a wild pig, but 
at last he came to Athens, and his father was 


A LITERARY EVENING. 


287 


glad to see him, but his nephews weren’t, for 
they wanted the crown themselves. But they 
had to go away with their mother, Medea, and 
Theseus had all the right to the throne. 

“ But in that country an expedition to Crete 
was prepared every year, to send fourteen 
young gentlemen and young ladies to the 
Minotaur, a sort of bull that looked like a man, 
a little. He was a pet of Minos, the king of 
Crete, and used to eat them up. Well, when 
Theseus heard about it, he said he’d go, too, 
and try to kill the beast. So they sailed away 
in a schooner with black sails and jibs and all, 
but Theseus promised his father that if he 
killed the Monitor, he’d put up white sails to 
come home with. They passed a brassy giant 
on the way, but when he found out where they 
were going, he let them pass without hurting 
them. 

“ They came to Minos, the king of Crete, 
and while he w^as looking them over to see if 
they were fat, Theseus was so saucy to him 
that Minos said he should be the first meal for 
the Monitor — Minotaur, I mean. But Minos 
had a daughter, Ariadne, who was in love with 


288 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


Theseus as soon as she saw him, and she let 
Theseus out of his prison, and led him to the 
labyrinth where the Moni — Minotaur lived. 
They had a ball of twine, and they tied one 
end to the gate-post, and then unwound it as 
they went in, so they could find their way out, 
for the walks crisscrossed every way so they 
would have been apt to get lost. When they 
came to the Minotaur, Ariadne stood back and 
cried, but Theseus had an awful fight with him 
and killed him. Then they came out, hauling 
in their line as they went along. They let out 
their friends, and he married Ariadne ; and 
they went off on board their boat, but in their 
hurry they forgot to take the white sails out of 
the hold and hoist them, so the poor old king, 
who was keeping watch, died of broken heart, 
because the schooner came back with black 
sails, and he supposed Theseus was eaten up. 

“ My friends, I think there are two morals to 
this story. First, keep your promises ; and, 
second, it is a very good thing to fall in love.” 

A great clapping of hands greeted Bert’s 
somewhat unexpected close. When quiet was 
restored, Bess said, — 


A LITERARY EVENING. 


289 


“ Master Frederic Allen will talk to us 
next.” And then she gave an anxious glance 
at the boy, to see how he would bear this 
ordeal. 

It seemed impossible that this could be the 
same Fred who, less than a year ago, had been 
shutting himself up, away from all his friends, 
and brooding sadly over his blindness, because 
it had spoiled his life. With only a slight 
touch of shyness, he stood there so easily, with 
one hand resting on the back of the chair in 
which Bessie was sitting, and his whole face 
bright with the laugh he had just been enjoying 
over Bert’s remarkable moral. 

“ 1 am going to try to tell you a little bit about 
that fossil over there,” he began, while Bess 
silently pointed to a superb fossil fish that lay 
on a side table. “ It came from high up in the 
Rocky Mountains, and people used to wonder 
how it could get there, so high above water, 
but now they know. You see, the earth used 
to be just a great ball of melted rock, whirling 
around in the air, and growing cool over the 
outside. But as it grew cool and hard, deeper 
and deeper down, the core seemed to shrink. 


290 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


and so the outside began to wrinkle, just like a 
dried-up old winter apple. And because it was 
colder than the air, the water condensed on the 
earth like steam on a cold window, and it all 
ran down into the low places, so there was an 
ocean where the Rocky Mountains are now. 
That was where this fish lived. He died, and 
his body sank down, and the sand washed in on 
top of it and grew hard. But the earth kept 
shrinking and making new wrinkles, till by and 
by they had changed places, and the Rocky 
Mountains were high up out of the water, and 
the fish was left there in the rock.’^ 

There was a perfect quiet while Fred was 
speaking, for all those present knew the boy’s 
sad story, and marvelled at the change in him. 
But as he turned back to his chair, there came 
a hearty burst of applause, not so much for the 
little talk, as for the boy himself who had made 
such a bold fight against his trouble. 

“ Master Robert Atkinson ” was the next 
announcement from the mistress of ceremonies. 

Rob shyly came forward and made his best 
bow, as he gave his subject. 


A LITEKARY EVENING. 


291 


“ LEPIDOPTERA. 

“ That means moths and butterflies. It 
comes from two words that mean scale and 
wing, because the foundation of their wings is 
covered with little bits of scales that lap over 
each other like shingles on a roof, and give the 
color, instead of their being gray, like a fly. 
They are the prettiest of all the insects, and 
there are a great many kinds of them, but 
they all go in two classes : the butterflies, that 
fly in the daytime ; and the moths, that come 
out at night. You can tell the difference when 
they settle, too, for the butterflies fold up their 
wings till they meet, straight up over their 
backs, and the moth’s wings lie flat. Their 
‘ feelers,’ or antennse, that are supposed to be 
to hear with, are different, too. In the butter- 
flies, they are largest at the end ; but in the 
moths they are larger in the middle or next the 
head, and sometimes they look just like two 
little feathers. 

“ All these moths and butterflies live twice. 
First they are a worm or caterpillar, and then in 
the fall they spin themselves up into a silk ball. 


292 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


It is very funny to see them. They hang them- 
selves up head down from the corner of a fence, 
or some such place, and spin round and round, 
leaving themselves in the middle. They lie 
like that ever so long, and then they hatch out 
and eat their way through. They have to take 
good care of themselves while their wings are 
growing, for fear something will eat them up. 

“In the silkworm, they wait till they have 
spun, and then they bake the cocoons to kill 
the animal inside, or else he would eat out. 
Then they unwind the silk. Each one lays 
about six or seven hundred eggs, so they can 
afford to kill a few. 

“ Some of the insects of this class are not so 
pleasant to have. The canker-worm belongs to 
it, and so does the moth that gets into houses 
and eats up woollen things. 

“ All caterpillars change their skins several 
times, getting a new one whenever it outgrows 
the old one. Some caterpillars have great appe- 
tites. One kind eats every day twice as much 
cabbage leaf as it weighs, as if I ate one hun- 
dred and seventy-five pounds of beef a day.” 

Rob’s somewhat mixed assortment of facts 


A LITERARY EVENING. 


293 


was listened to with a profound attention that 
was most gratifying. Ted, as the last speaker, 
came forward with a smile of calm assurance, 
before his name was called. Unrolling: his 
manuscript, which proved to be a single strip 
of paper about three inches wide and four feet 
long, he bowed cheerfully to the audience, and 
began his theme. _ 




“NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

“Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1768, and 
died in May, 1821. He was born in Corsica, 
and was sometimes called ‘ the ogre of Corsica,’ 
after he was dead, and they dared to. He was 
a very great general and a very bad man, but 
he did a few good things. When he was 
eleven years old, he began going to a military 
school, and when he was twenty-eight he was 
put at the head of forty thousand men, and he be- 
gan to beat the enemy right off. In two years, 
he had won eighteen pitch battles. The way 
he came to have such a good position was be- 
cause at Toulon, in a siege, he was the only 
man who could point the guns right to have 
them go into the city. That made him famous. 



294 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


Well, he conquered Italy and Sardinia and 
Austria and Egypt. But that wasn’t enough 
for him, so he came home for a little while, and 
went into politics. He made himself first 
consul of France when he was only twenty- 
nine. Five years later, in 1804, he made the 
pope crown him emperor. Then he went on 
conquering countries, and putting his own 
relations on the throne — they didn’t have any 
civil-service reform then — till he had most 
everything but England and Russia in the 
family. And at home he made a few good 
laws, and straightened out things where the 
revolution had mixed them up. But in 1812 
he made an expedition to Russia, and there he 
was beaten. Then, till 1814, he had ever so 
many defeats, and finally was arrested and sent 
to Elba. He was there about a year, and then 
ran away and came back to France. When he 
came, the king they had put on the throne ran 
away, and all his old soldiers came back to him. 
But on June 17th, 1815, they fought the battle 
of Waterloo. Napoleon was beaten and cap- 
tured and carried clear down to St. Helena, 
where they kept an eye on him till he died; 
and I say it served him right.” 


A LITERARY EVENING. 


295 


While Teddy was reading, Bess* had seated 
herself at the piano. When he finished, she 
played the opening bars of “ Fair Harvard,” as 
the boys rose, joined hands, and made a low bow 
to the audience. Then they began to sing. 

“ Dear friends, now this evening you’ve seen our I. I., 
And we leave yon to judge of its work. 

Of its many good times we will tell by and by ; 

For as pills under sugar coats lurk. 

We must each do our work, ere we share in the play, 
For such does our club make its rule ; 

And many’s the lesson we learn day by day. 

In this jolliest kind of a school. 

We have wandered o’er many a subject ere this. 

And our six months have been full well spent ; 

We no longer sit down and talk nonsense and fun. 

For on learning we’re all of us bent, 

So we solemnly talk of the pagans and worms. 

Of minerals, planets, and snakes. 

We speak of the glory of Washington’s fame, 

Of cormorants, Zulus, and lakes. 

But we all have a wish to impart from our store; 

To improve those around us Ls kind ; 

So weve called you together, and made you a feast 
Of crumbs from each overstocked mind. 

And now, our dear friends, we thank you indeed. 
Your attention has been most polite. 

Six months from this time we’ll invite you again; 

In the mean time, we wish you good-night.” 


296 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

ROB ASSISTS AT AN IMPORTANT INTERVIEW. 

Another month had passed, and it was the 
day after Thanksgiving. The feast day had 
been a merry one, for Mrs. Atkinson had 
invited the Carter household. Fuzz and all, to 
dine with her, and the fun had been prolonged 
until late in the evening. The next day, as 
was usually the case after any unwonted dissi- 
pation, Fred was ill with a severe nervous head- 
ache, the onl}^ trace left of his illness of the 
year before. By carefully regulating his habits, 
Bess had generally succeeded in avoiding them, 
but the excitement of the day before had been 
too much for him ; and soon after breakfast, he 
had gone up to the sofa in his room, where 
Bess had been busy with him all the morn- 
ing. 

In the early afternoon, Rob had sti*olled into 
the house. He found no one in the parlor or 


ROB AT AN IMPORTANT INTERVIEW. 297 


library, for, as we have said, Bess was with 
Fred, and Mrs. Carter was lying down. 

“ Never mind,” thought Rob. “ They will 
be down pretty soon, so I’ll just sit down and 
read till they come.” 

Accordingly, he took up a book and settled 
himself comfortably in a vast reclining-chair 
that stood near one of the library windows, 
half hidden behind a folding Japanese screen. 
But the book was rather a dull one, and Rob, if 
the truth must be told, was decidedly sleepy 
after his late hours of the night before ; so be- 
fore he had turned many pages, the book fell 
from his hand, his head dropped back into the 
depths of his chair, and Master Rob was sound 
asleep. 

Half an hour later the bell rang. As 
Bridget could never be prevailed on to leave 
her work and go to the door, Bess gave Fred a 
bell to ring, in case he needed anything, and 
went down herself. There on the threshold 
stood Frank Muir, looking extremely glad to 
see her, although he seemed a little nervous 
and excited. 

‘‘ Oh, Mr. Muir, I am very glad to see you,” 


298 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


said Bessie cordially. “ Come right through 
into the library, won’t you ? The parlor seems 
rather cool.” 

He followed her into the room, and they 
drew their chairs up to the fire, quite uncon- 
scious of the boy sleeping away so soundly just 
the other side of the screen. For some reason, 
the conversation did not run on very smoothly. 
Bess was listening with one ear to Mr. Muir, 
and straining the other to catch any sounds 
from above ; and then, too, the young man’s 
uneasiness seemed to have extended itself to 
her, in a strange and uncomfortable fashion. 
They said all the approved things and in the 
approved way, but still there did not seem to 
be quite the easy, pleasant good-fellowship that 
had always existed between them. At length 
Mr. Muir rose and stood leaning on the mantel, 
looking down at Bess. 

“Miss Carter,” he was beginning abruptly, 
and with a sort of effort, “ I ” — 

At that moment a loud, sharp, determined 
bark was heard at the front door, just the bark 
to waken Fred, if he chanced to have fallen 
asleep. Bess sprang up. 


BOB AT AN IMPORTANT INTERVIEW. 299 


“ Mr. Muir, excuse me a moment, but Fuzz 
will disturb Fred, who is ill to-day. I must 
just let him in.” 

Frank Muir dropped down into his chair 
again, with an expression singularly like that of 
disgust on his pleasant face. Fuzz came danc- 
ing into the room, stopped at sight of a sup- 
posed stranger, and growled threateningly. 
Then, recognizing him as a friend, he leaped to 
his knee and began scratching at his shoulders 
and face, in token of friendly welcome. 

There was another interval of brief remarks 
and long pauses. Then Mr. Muir cleared his 
throat and began anew. 

“ I was just going to say, when Fuzz ” — 

Another interruption, this time from Fred, 
whose bell rang sharply. Bess again excused 
herself and ran up-stairs. She soon returned. 

“ Poor Fred,” she said, as she seated herself 
once more ; “ he is paying dearly for his 
Thanksgiving frolic.” 

“ Am I keeping you from him ? ” asked Mr. 
Muir courteously. 

“ Oh, no. There is nothing I can do for him 


now. 


300 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


Mr. Muir drew his chair a little nearer to 
hers. 

“ Miss Carter,” he said, “ I have for a long 
time ” — 

“ M-m-m-h-m-m-m,” remarked Fuzz, in a 
plaintive falsetto. 

Alas for Mr. Muir ! Fuzz had brought his 
ball and laid it at the young man’s feet, and 
then seated himself at a distance, wagging his 
tail, and blinking suggestively at his toy. 

“ What does he want of me ? ” asked the 
young man helplessly. 

“ He wants you to throw it for him,” said 
Bess. “ See,” she added, as the dog rose 
to a sitting posture, “ he is begging you 
for it.” 

“ M-m-m-m-m-m-m,” added Fuzz, in an 
explanatory tone. 

Mr. Muir took the ball and threw it from 
him with an energy that was not entirely 
caused by his devotion to Fuzz. But this was 
just what the dog wished, and away he scram- 
bled after it, twisting up the rugs and knocking 
down the fire-irons with a clatter as he went. 
Mr. Muir had returned to the charge. 


KOB AT AN IMPORTANT INTERVIEW. 301 


“I have been trying for a long, long time 
to ” — 

“ M-m-m-h-h-m-m-m-woof ? ” So spoke Fuzz, 
who had re-appeared, and again cast his ball at 
the feet of Mr. Muir. The young man paid no 
heed to him. 

“ M-m-m-h-h-h-m-m-m ! ” In a tone of low 
warning. 

“ No, no. Fuzz ! Come here ! ” commanded 
Bess. 

Fuzz disrespectfully turned the white of one 
eye up to her, as who should say, “ Catch me 
if you can,” and then repeated his former 
remark. 

Mr. Muir shut his teeth tightly together, and 
again hurled the ball into a remote corner. 
This time Fuzz collided with the waste-paper 
basket, and scattered its contents up and down 
the room. 

“ I have tried to see you to ask you if ” — 

“ M-m-m-m-h-h-m-m-m ? ” said Fuzz inquir- 
ingly. 

“ You would ” — 

“ M-m-m-h-h-m-woof ! ” 

‘‘ Would be ” — 


302 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ M-m-m-h-h-m-m-wow ! ” 

“ If you would be willing to ” — 

“ W ow-wo w-ow-ow ! Wow ! ! ! ” 

This time Bessie rose, took the dog, and 
shut him up out in the kitchen, from which 
place of banishment his voice could be heard, 
rising in bitter remonstrance against this un- 
deserved punishment. Was he not trying to help 
entertain the company, to be sure ? Bess was 
gone some little time, and when she returned 
her face was very red and there were traces of 
tears on her cheeks. They were not tears of 
sorrow. 

Strangely enough, Mr. Muir seemed to have 
lost the thread of his discourse and could think 
of no other, so there was another prolonged 
silence until Bessie, taking pity on his evident 
discomfort, started an impersonal subject of 
conversation. But Mr. Muir was thoughtful, 
and only answered her vaguely and inatten- 
tively, so much so that Bess, in her turn, be- 
came silent, and the two sat there, staring hard 
at the fire, and almost wishing for a return of 
Fuzz to break the awkwardness of the situation. 
This had lasted for several minutes when Mr. 


ROB AT AN IMPORTANT INTERVIEW. 303 


Muir pushed back his chair, rose, and began to 
pace up and down the room. Then he returned 
to his old place by the mantel, and once more 
began to speak. 

In the mean time, Rob had been dreaming of 
his summer visit on the St. Lawrence. He and 
cousin Bess had been trying to row a large 
trunk from the hotel to Island Den, with a pair 
of tennis rackets for oars, and Fred stood on 
the bank, refusing to let them land. Each 
time that they came near the shore, he would 
push the boat off again. Then he seemed to 
hear Mr. Muir’s voice calling them to row 
around to the other side of the island, — and at 
this point, Rob waked up with a sleepy yawn. 
As soon as he could collect his scattered ideas, 
he became aware that some one was talking 
near him, talking low and very earnestly. He 
recognized the voice at once as Mr. Muir’s, and 
then he heard Bess speak a word or two, but 
so faintly that he was unable to hear what she 
said. What was happening ? 

Cautiously Rob applied his eye to the crack 
in the screen. His curiosity was increased. 
Mr. Muir was bending over Bess, and seemed 


304 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


to be pleading with her, while her face was 
turned away and looked very white. Rob was 
sure that he saw that her eyes were wet. It 
was certainly very strange. What could Mr. 
Muir be saying to cousin Bessie to make her 
cry? And what was he doing there anyway? 
Ah, Rob, much better ask what you are doing 
there, wonderingly looking on at such a scene ! 

But a few words from Mr. Muir fell on his 
ears, and, by throwing some light on the affair, 
turned his anxiety into another channel. Here 
was a fine position for an honorable boy, to be 
caught eavesdropping in this way ! Should he 
stay quietly where he was until they had gone, 
and then go away and never tell that he had 
been there? But if he stayed, he must hear 
every word of the interview, that was bidding 
fair to be a long one ; and then, they might find 
him in his corner. But, on the other hand, if 
he emerged then and there, it would lead to an 
awkward explanation and mutual confusion. 
Holding his fingers in his ears to keep out the 
sound of their voices, he meditated on his posi- 
tion. What a stupid he was to go to sleep 
there, just like a great, overgrown baby ! He 


ROB AT AN IMPORTANT INTERVIEW. 305 


wondered if he could get out of the window 
without their hearing him open it. No, that 
was no use. They were exactly between him 
and the door, so escape on that side was im- 
possible. But it was all still in the room ; 
could they have gone away, and he not heard 
them? No, there they sat, their chairs quite 
close together, and Frank’s hand lying on 
Bessie’s. Their silence was but a short one, 
and they were soon talking again. The crisis 
must be past, for their voices were once more 
clear and animated. Rob didn’t want to hear 
what they were saying, for it was no affair of 
his, and then, it must be confessed, their re- 
marks were not of a nature to be generally 
interesting. More and more closely the boy 
held his ears, but it was no use: the words 
would find their way between his fingers, and 
he found that he must either show himself, or 
become a party to all their personal and private 
plans. 

At this point, Rob’s mischief asserted itself. 
It was a bad matter, at best, hut he was 
resolved to have a little fun out of it. Their 
backs were towards him, that was one good 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


306 

thing. Silently mounting his chair, he stood 
up so that his head and shoulders appeared 
above the top . of the tall screen, extended his 
arms in the air, and shouted with the full 
strength of his lungs, — 

“ Bless you, my children I ” 

The effect was marvellous. Instantly the 
two chairs were drawn to the opposite corners 
of the hearth, while Mr. Muir began poking the 
fire with an unnecessary vigor, and Bessie 
dropped her head guiltily, as her face became 
rosy red. 

“ I’m sorry ! I didn’t mean to ! I won’t 
again. I didn’t hear much,” said Rob inco- 
herently, as he burst from his place of oonceal- 
ment.^“I didn’t care to hear anything about 
it, really; only I went to sleep there all alone, 
and when I waked up, you were at it. I didn’t 
s’pose you would do it so soon, anj^way. Next 
time, tell a fellow when it’s coming, and I’ll 
try to keep out of the way.” 

Of course he was forgiven, and kissed, and 
petted, and made to swear secrecy, before he 
was sent away. And the boy actually kept his 
word. 



“ Bless you, my children! ” 





t 




ROB AT AN IMPORTANT INTERVIE^Y. 307 


Two hours later, as Bess was following Mr. 
j\Iuir to the door, the young man said, laugh- 
— 

“ I’ll tell you what it is, Bessie. Bob has 
had so large a share in helping this along, that, 
when the day comes, he shall be best man, — . 
and Fuzz shall sing the march.” 


308 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

“THE victor’s crown OF GOLD.” 

The Old Year was dying fast. It had 
wrapped itself in a soft white mantle of snow, 
and was quietly waiting until the midnight 
bells should announce the coming of the young 
New Year, laden under its mysterious burden 
of joy and sadness, pain and pleasure, hope and 
its fulfilment or its disappointment, that, day 
by day, it would unfold before the busy world. 

But although the New Year was anxiously 
awaited by many a soul, the old one, now 
dying, had been a good friend to them all, and 
especially to the little group now chatting in 
the Carters’ library. 

As Bess looked about among her boys, from 
Ted and Bert, now taller than herself, who sat 
at her either hand, to Rob, who stood leaning 
on the back of her chair, and then to Phil, who 
was perched on the large table that filled the 


THE VICTOR’S CROWN OF GOLD.” 309 


middle of the room, she could see many a 
pleasant mark that the year had left on them. 
And even Sam. Hard as the separation had 
been for those who were left behind, the boy 
was so safe and happy, safe from the many 
temptations that follow our boys through their 
lives, strengthening many a one, it is true, but 
all too often overpowering and destroying some 
fine, manly lad, who yet lacks just the courage 
to speak the one decided word that shall leave 
him the victor in the fight. Yes, Sam had 
gained in the past year, although it had been a 
sad lesson for the other boys, whose careless 
fun had brought the loss to them. 

And Fred? It was with a feeling of un- 
mixed pride and pleasure that Bessie surveyed 
the bonnie boy who was sitting opposite her, 
with Fuzz on his knee. His figure and features 
were the same they had been on that rainy 
November afternoon, a little over a year ago ; 
but that was all. In place of the pale, listless, 
sad boy that had greeted her then, there sat an 
energetic, rosy, happy lad, whose whole face 
was laughing at the frolic into which he had 
entered as heartily as any of the other lads, a 


810 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


little gentler than the rest, perhaps, but as full 
of fun and mischief as ever a boy could be. 

“ Yes,” thought Bess, as she watched him, 
“ Sam made the one grand sacrifice that the 
world admires and talks of ; but Fred’s sacri- 
fice is a longer and harder one, even, than 
his, the constant fighting to forget himself and 
his blindness, in trying to help make life 
pleasanter to the rest of us. He is winning his 
‘ victor’s crown of gold ’ most nobly and truly.” 

Half unconsciously, she hummed the line to 
herself. Phil gave her a quick glance of 
understanding. 

“Well, Phil?” she asked, rousing herself 
from her reverie. 

“ Nothing, only I guess I know what you 
were thinking about.” And he took up the air 
where she had dropped it. 

“Yes, Phil; that was it, and I was feeling so 
happy as I looked around at my boys, and saw 
what a good, faithful fight they have been 
making.” 

“ What is it? ” asked Ted curiously. 

“ Only a little watchword between Fred and 
Phil and me,” answered Bess. Then with a 


‘'THE VICTOR’S CROWN OF GOLD.” 311 


smile of invitation she added, “We have formed 
ourselves into a little army of three, to fight 
for the ‘ victor’s crown of gold.’ Will you 
join it?” 

“ I don’t think I understand quite,” said Bert 
slowly. 

Bess repeated the verse to them, and then 
went on, — 

“ All is, we boys want to be as true and 
brave and unselfish from day to day as we can 
possibly be, so that at the end of the years, as 
we look back over the little battles we have 
fought all through our lives, we can feel that 
we have conquered in them, and have won our 
right to the crown. Not all of us will have 
the power or the opportunity for one grand 
fight and unselfish victory like Sam’s, the day 
he went into the fire to save our Fred ; but, 
after all, it is the way we meet the every-day 
cares and troubles, the little petty ones, such as 
we every one of us have, that shows our 
heroism as much as the greater ones. If we 
study a lesson when we should prefer to be 
playing ball, or do as our fathers and mothers 
wish, and do it cheerfully and pleasantly, even 


312 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


if it isn’t the very thing we choose, or give up 
some little frolic we have been anticipating, 
because, by doing that, we can make some one 
else happy, all these will be so many battles 
won, and the winning them will give us the 
crown. What do you think of our army ? ” 

“ It’s a first-rate one,” said Bert heartily, 
while Teddy pensively added, — 

“ I’m afraid I shall have to spend all my days 
fighting slang.” 

Bessie laughed outright. 

“No, Ted; for if you go on improving as 
fast as you have done in the last six months, 
you will soon be free to fight another enemy 
than that one.” 

“ I wonder what mine is ? ” said Phil, swing- 
ing his heels thoughtfully. 

“ Covetousness,” responded Ted promptly. 
“ It’s only two days since I heard you wishing 
you had Miss Bessie’s good temper.” 

“ Poor Phil ! ” said Bess, reaching up to pat 
the brown head. “ You’d much better wish 
for something more than that.” 

“ I wonder if we shall all be together hgre a 
year from now,” said Rob thoughtfully, 


“THE VICTOR’S CROWN OF GOLD.” 313 


“ Let us hope so,” answered Bessie ; “ but 
that is something hidden beyond our sight. 
As long as we can, my boys, we will try to be 
together, here or somewhere else, on the last 
night of every year.” 

For some unexplained reason, Rob looked 
very wicked during the latter half of his 
cousin’s speech ; but no one noticed it, for Ted 
inquired just then, — 

“ What are you lads going to be when you 
grow up? ” 

“ My father says I’ve got to be a doctor,” 
remarked Bert ruefully, “ but I’d much rather 
go West on a cattle ranch, or else be an 
architect. What shall you do. Bob ? ” 

“ Bugs and things,” answered Rob briefly. 

“ Ted ? ” 

“I don’t know. Civil engineer, that is, if 
father can send me through college. That’s 
what I’d like best.” 

“Phil?” 

“ A minister, I s’pose,” groaned Phil. 
“ That’s the family plan, but I don’t think I’m 
much suited for it.” 

“ Think of the ugly duckling, and have 
courage,” suggested Rob consolingly. 


814 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“Fred?” 

“ Of course I can’t tell yet what I can do,” 
said Fred thoughtfully. Then, suddenly turn- 
ing to Bess with a smile, he went on ; “ What I 
want most of all is to be your faithful soldier.” 

“ And Sam has always said that he’d rather 
be a good mechanic than anything else,” added 
Bert. “ That accounts for us all. Miss Bessie. 
How do you like the assortment ? ” 

“ Very much,” answered Bess. “ I can have 
Bert to cure my body, and Phil my soul, while 
Ted shall survey my garden, and Rob shall 
make a collection of the insects that devour my 
crops. Fred I shall keep to fight for me and 
with me. Then, at the end of every year, we 
will all meet and talk over our battles, and 
make our plans for the next campaign. And 
now, my boys, it is growing late, and I must 
send you away. But, before you go, I am 
going to bring in some water, and we’ll drink 
a health to the Old Year that has given us so 
much, and taken away one dear one from the 
half-dozen boys.” 

As they stood grouped about her, Bess 
slowly repeated the toast, — 


“THE VICTOR’S CROWN OF GOLD.” 315 


“ ‘ Here’s to those that I love ; here’s to those that love 
me ; 

Here’s to those that love those that I love ; 

Here’s to those that love those that love those that 
love me ; 

Here’s to those that love those that I love.’ ” 

“ That’s most everybody,” said Ted, as he 
set down his empty glass. 

“ It ought to include all the world, on the 
eve of the New Year,” answered Bess gently. 

The last good-night had been said, and the 
boys were gone, leaving Fred and Bess stand- 
ing together in the hall. 

“ Need I go to bed yet? ” asked Fred. “ I’m 
not sleepy a bit, even if it is late.” 

“No, dear; I have several things I want to 
talk over with you,” said Bess, smiling happily 
to herself as she led the way back to the 
library fire. 

Fred settled himself on a hassock at her feet, 
in his favorite position, and turned his face to 
listen. But Bess seemed in no hurry to begin 
the conversation. She thoughtfully stroked 
and patted the boy’s face, and played with his 
hair. Suddenly she asked, — 


316 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


“ Well, laddie, has the last year been any 
better than the one before it ? ” 

“ Ever so much.” Fred spoke with an air of 
happy conviction. 

“ Do you know why ? ” she went on. 

“ Of course I do,” said Fred, as he reached 
up and took her hand. “It’s because you’ve 
done so much for me.” 

“No, Fred; that is a very small part of it. 
The change is all in your own little self. It is 
because you have tried so hard to make some- 
thing of your life, even if you can’t see ; and 
I hope another year will be a still happier one 
for you, happier and better.” 

Fred shook his head. 

“ Not happier, if I have to leave you, for my 
year here is almost over. I wish it would last 
forever. But, Miss Bessie, it really isn’t near 
so bad as I used to think it was. You and the 
boys are all so good to me, and you have 
taught me to do so man}'- things, that if I could 
only stay with you always, I shouldn’t much 
mind the rest.” 

“ That is my hero,” said Bess tenderly. 
“But, Fred, this makes it very easy to tell you 


THE VICTOR’S CROWN OF GOLD.” 317 


of a letter I had yesterday from your father. 
He says that he and your mother have decided 
to stay abroad another year, and asks if you 
can still be with us. Are you willing to 
stay ? ” 

No need to ask. Fred’s gesture and smile 
were all the reply she needed. 

There was another long pause. Then Bess 
said slowly, — 

“Fred, I have one more thing to tell you, 
something you ought to know. I hope you 
will like it, for I am very, very happy. Mr. 
Muir has asked me to be his wife.” 

“Mr. Muir! How splendid!” And Fred 
sprang up, in his delighted surprise. 

“ So you are pleased? Well, sit down again 
while I tell you the rest. Before the next 
year is over, I shall probably go with him, hut 
it is all settled that our little new home shall 
have one room in it that will always be ‘ Fred’s 
room.’ ” 

It was long before F'red went to sleep that 
night. As he still lay awake, thinking of the 
happy New Year opening before him, across 
the still night air came the sound of a church 


318 


HALF A DOZEN BOYS. 


bell. Slow and solemn were its tones, as it 
tolled out the dying year. Then, at the stroke 
of midnight, it quickened to a merry peal, to 
usher in the new-born year, with all its hopes 
and fears. And, in a gentle undertone, he 
heard from the distant city the chimes playing 
that grand old hymn, so linked with sad, 
tender memories of Sam, so full of help and 
cheer for himself, — 

“ Lead, kindly Light, amid th’ encircling gloom, 

Lead thou me on. 

The night is dark, and I am far from home, 

Lead thou me on. 

Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see 

The distant scene. One step enough for me.” 


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